USM: You Mean I Wasn't Supposed to Kill the Rest of the University?
On Sunday April 17, the Biloxi Sun Herald ran a lengthy interview with Senator Trent Lott on his"economic development" activities in Mississippi. What Senator Lott presents as economic development activity, others would see as pork barrel politics and the dispensation of privileges to the politically connected -- and there's plenty in the interview to support such interpretations. For instance, references to defense contractors that operate in Mississippi (particularly, to shipyards on the Gulf Coast) are sprinkled throughout the interview.
One relatively brief passage, however, is especially pertinent to those of us who have been following the USM saga. In it, Lott describes the Congressional appropriations he has secured for universities in the Mississippi state system:
One of the things I've worked on over the years - and I've talked about it and a lot of people didn't quite see it at first - but I tried to find niches at our universities, which I could support with federal funds, federal grants that were unique programs at those universities, which could then relate to the creation of jobs.
At the University of Southern Mississippi it's the polymer science center (and) the center for economic development and entrepreneurship; it's the technology programs at Mississippi State University; it's the physics acoustics program at Ole Miss and now with shipbuilding and with Northrop Grumman looking to polymers or composites for hulls of the future, University of Southern Mississippi is perfectly situated to collaborate.
Chancellor Khayat at Ole Miss hasn't taken Federal subsidies to the physical acoustics program as a signal to tear down the English program or run off the senior professors in Psychology. President Lee at Miss State hasn't seen any need to shut down the Math department or bring the ax down on the Business school so his university's technology programs will shine forth with greater glory.
But at the University of Southern Mississippi, Shelby Freland Thames has interpreted special appropriations for Polymer Science and Economic Development as commands to ruin Nursing, deaccredit Business, gut the Honors program, underfund Math till it collapses, run off 1/3 of the English faculty, and take periodic whacks at everything else.
While I would imagine that Trent Lott's understanding of universities is rather limited, I very much doubt that either he or anyone on his staff expected Thames to take a wrecking ball to the rest of USM. I doubt, too, that anyone in Lott's office thought that demolishing most of USM would help draw high-tech industry to the southern third of Mississippi.
Somebody forgot to tell Shelby Thames. D'oh!!!