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SERVING SOUTHERN MISS SINCE 1927
Tuesday, September 21 , 2010
S HIT BUDGET CUT SON FATHER AND
BUDGET
Professors demand fairness Samantha Schott Executive Editor
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TEACHING OUT: MEAN? WHAT DOES IT
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ALA 2010 ART G
USM’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors met Thursday and decided to request to the administration that the upcoming appeals process follow AAUP guidelines and include faculty representation. The AAUP was founded in 1914 and has since served as a watchdog for university faculty across the nation, producing thorough reports on violations of tenure and academic freedom. Members of USM’s AAUP chapter agreed that faculty should play a major role in the appeals process. Psychology professor and president of USM’s AAUP Tammy Greer said, “It’s the faculty I believe, and maybe not the administrators who are looking at the budget, who should hear the appeals.”
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Greer said the USM chapter has suggested to the administration that the faculty be elected from each college. She explained that since USM has not declared financial exigency, which the national AAUP website defines as an “imminent financial crisis which threatens the survival of the institution as a whole.” Greer said that unless an institution has declared financial exigency, the AAUP recommends that cuts be made based only on educational value rather than cost-savings. Greer therefore said faculty should hear the appeals so that they may consider educational value “in order to more fully consider the real impact on the university community of removing these initiatives, of removing these disciplines, of removing these people from our community.” Senior program officer of the national AAUP Robert Kreiser said the organization is still examining
ON CAMPUS
Hannah Jones
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Volume 95 Issue 8
USM students were bombarded with e-mails over the weekend after countless forwarded messages were sent to an all-student address creating a stir on Eagle Apps and a nightmare for iTech. Problems with the all-student forwarding system began Friday night around 6:00 p.m. and continued throughout Saturday and Sunday. Students abused mass e-mailing for their own personal uses such as business promotions, locating lost possessions and even personal status updates. With students submitting posts at such a rampant rate, Eagle Apps became more of a social media network than an e-mail hub. A few messages that were mass forwarded include, “ I just wanted to say that I love each and every one of you so much,” “ Can everybody just go to bed,” and “I say Martha should give us free tuition for this.” Marketing specialist for iTech Kelly Williams said the problem
has been fixed, and the iTech staff is currently investigating to determine what went wrong. “We don’t want students to get discouraged and not use their university e-mail,” she said. Williams stressed the importance of receiving university e-mails, as University Communications sends official emails and messages from President Saunders to students’ USM e-mail addresses. Manager of IT Advancement Valerie Craig explained that students are automatically placed on the all-students e-mail list upon registering as a student on SOAR. Over the weekend, the automated system seems to have malfunctioned. “Somehow this list got changed from being moderated, meaning someone official had to send [a message], to open, meaning everyone being able to send a message,” she said. In the future, however, the mesages will be kept moderated. “We want the students to understand that we intend for it to be moderated so it is for official university business only,” Craig said.
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USM’s situation. Concerning the appeals process, he said what he has heard so far does not coincide with AAUP guidelines. “What I’ve heard so far is that the appeals process involves petitioning a group of administrators who will then review the appeals that faculty members would be making, and that’s totally inconsistent with AAUP’s recommended standards which calls for the appeal to go through the elected faculty body,” he said. “The notion that an appeal would go to the people who made the decision in the first place is not consistent with principles of academic due process.” Greer said she is hopeful, however, that the AAUP’s requests will influence the administration. She said President Martha Saunders and Provost Bob Lyman met with the AAUP upon the AAUP’s request, shortly after the terminations were announced. During their meeting,
USM AAUP representatives asked that information about the decisionmaking process be made public. Days later the USM website featured links to the deans’ rankings, UPC rankings and cabinet rankings as well as the Provost’s justifications for program cuts. Concerning the appeals process, Greer said, “The AAUP recommendations on this matter are clear and reasonable. The administration seems very willing to dialogue with us, to hear us out and to take into consideration AAUP recommendations, and so I am hopeful that an appeals process will develop that follows the AAUP guidelines.” English professor Ellen Weinauer, membership chair of USM’s AAUP, agreed. “I think Saunders has demonstrated that she does want to follow AAUP guidelines,” she said. Saunders said the administration is still processing feedback on the proposed appeals process.
ON CAMPUS
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President of the Alumni Association Bob Pierce kisses a pig before the football game on Friday. Proceeds from the “Kiss a Pig” contest will benefit the American Heart Association.