USM: The Coca-Cola Communiqué

The official statements are in from last night's meeting of Hattiesburg-area businesspeople. The Coca-Cola Cabal (the original location was to be the local Coca-Cola bottler) or Paving Company Putsch was organized to drum up support for Shelby Thames, the President of the University of Southern Mississippi whose hold on power is slipping.

The attendance at Warren Paving Company was a little less than advertised: 185 of those on the invitation list passed through the security check at the door and listened to a series of speakers exhorting them to contact the Mississippi IHL Board and express their unwavering support for Thames.

The Coca-Cola communiqué is purposely uninteresting; what it conceals is far more important than what it reveals. Participants in the meeting were given a long happy-talk list of positive accomplishments at the University of Southern Mississippi. Some were trivial; many pertained to building projects or fundraising that were primarily the work of Thames' predecessors; a few (like the purported redirection of $2 million from administration to the classroom after Thames fired 9 deans and replaced them with five) were demonstrably bogus. And all have been amply promoted by Lisa Mader and her publicity apparatus, so there was little need for a community meeting just to get them out.

The organizers chose as their spokeman Bob Mixon, a car dealer who played a major role in installing Shelby Thames as USM's president in 2002--and in turn received Thames' support for a position on the Mississippi IHL Board (which he didn't get). His public utterances can be seen in today's Hattiesburg American:

Mixon suggested the state College Board should provide greater guidance - to president Shelby Thames and the faculty - on the issues facing the university."I think there has to be a meeting where decisions are made that are binding and the only ones to do that are the College Board," Mixon said."I would hope that they will clarify their position on what they think the role of a president is, that they would clarify their position on the faculty's dissension with the administration."

But Mixon dismissed the faculty's votes against Thames - first a no-confidence vote by nearly all the faculty last year and then a call this year by the Faculty Senate to find a new president."I think it's the College Board's job to set directives and policies for universities," Mixon said."I think it's their job to hire presidents. If they don't like the job the president's doing, they can make a change. But whether a president stays or goes should be the decision of the Board of Trustees of (State) Institutions of Higher Learning, not the Faculty Senate. The people who are going to be affected by the change simply cannot be the ones that decide whether he stays or goes."

Hmm, well, Mixon and his allies are also people who are going to be affected by the change. And they are trying very hard to be"the ones that decide."

He also said the meeting was not held to"bash professors" although Mixon criticized some comments posted anonymously on the American Association of University Professors Web site calling for violence against meeting organizers.

I'm thoroughly familiar with the AAUP-USM message board--on which most posters are anonymous and many are not USM faculty members--and I've seen no such calls for violence. There have been calls for boycotts against businesses that participate in the Paving Company Putsch (and some objections to boycotting the businesses); that's all.

The Sun Herald article on the meeting combines more of Mixon's official statements with a few telling details about the way it was conducted.

In any event, the real purpose of the meeting at Warren Paving comes through in frank comments from people who attended it. This item is part of a series of posts"From Someone Who Was There":

The tone of the meeting was clearly a pro-[Shelby F. Thames] rally. It is important to note that all there were not buying the bill of goods being presented, but it was apparent that those responsible for organizing the meeting were there for the purpose of throwing their support behind SFT. That was a very clear message. The following are some points that were made during the meeting:

It was strongly suggested that only a few faculty are"inciting" the masses. [Former Provost and Faculty Senate President} Myron [Henry] was mentioned specifically as in,"That Myron Henry should have never been brought here!"

Stated that the no confidence votes that have happened in the past were coerced; that is, for fear of reprisal, non-tenured faculty voted along with the masses (for those of you reading this, all votes were by secret ballot!!!)

Those who get tenure, go on to be nonproductive faculty

The Hattiesburg American is biased against Dr. Thames and can't be trusted to print articles or statements correctly; one suggested boycotting the American by cancelling subscriptions or not buying advertising space

Those organizing the meeting that happened tonight have been threatened with bodily harm and boycotting; one participant proclaimed to have a pistol under the seat of his car and stated,"I'm not afraid of some faculty member."

If [Shelby F. Thames] leaves the University, it will not survive; who would want to come to a university in such turmoil?

All were urged to contact the IHL in support of SFT

Everyone was urged to visit the AAUP[-USM] web site [and message board}

There was no mention of SACS probation, the fall from Tier 3 to Tier 4 [in the US News rankings], the College of Business, Nursing, or any academic program for that matter--or the library

Shelby knows how to talk and work the legislature and that helps the university

Teaching faculty are jealous of the Athletic Department.

Okay folks, the tone of the meeting was exactly what one could expect based on the preceding articles in the paper [i.e., the Independent, which ran two more articles on the pro-Thames politicking yesterday]. It is clear to me that their motives were transparent. Love of the University was the least of them!!!!

Another poster on the same thread, who went as"Hattiesburg Business Member," objected to the manner in which the Paving Company meeting was run:

The organizers' assumption was that"the invited business leaders" were not bright enough to realize this was a pro-Thames meeting. As each one began their presentation, it began with"this is not a pro-Thames meeting." The ending was always the same: I personally support Shelby and urge you to contact IHL and let them know you support Shelby and the changes he is making.

The implication that our local economy and personal businesses would suffer if Shelby left, because"they fear what the results would be."

The implication that the faculty was entirely to blame for the conflict. No mention was made of the SACS [accreditation] problems, the situation with the College of Business, the embarrassment over the enrollment mistake [when enrollment numbers were deliberately inflated in the Fall of 2003], or the lack of support for academic programs.

Responses to the Coca-Cola Cabal continue to be vigorous. USM's AAUP chapter adopted a resolution at a meeting yesterday afternoon and sent it off to the Mississippi IHL Board. It presents a 15-count indictment of Shelby Thames' role in imperiling the university's accreditation and impeding efforts to get USM off probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. (I will link to it once it appears on the main AAUP-USM website.)

Obviously...to be continued.