University of Southern Mississippi Update ...

The faculty Senate at Mississippi State University has adopted a resolution in support of Professors Frank Glamser and Gary Stringer at the University of Southern Mississippi. New Orleans's Times-Picayune reports the situation at USM with expressions of concern in New Orleans's academic community. The American Association of University Professors has expressed its concern to Mississippi education authorities.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Update (subscriber only) also features USM. Beyond what you have read here, perhaps the most important new information in it is the background it offers about how the question of an administrator's credentials led Glamser and Stringer to the current confrontation with President Shelby Thames. Glamser found documents which put those credentials in question in a folder slipped under his office door by an anonymous source on 11 December. He passed them on to Thames, the administrator's supervisor, with a note indicating that the local AAUP, which he led, would prefer not to get involved. Thames turned the matter over to another administrator who came to the university with the person whose credentials were questioned. Since then the question has always been, as a headline in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger asks,"Who's Under Crosshairs at USM?" An effective senior administrator would not have allowed this story to get so out of control.