Pressure Continues to Build at USM

Previously during the crisis at the University of Southern Mississippi, President Shelby Thames and his personal spokesflack Lisa Mader have been extremely voluble. Again and again they have made statements to the press that have come back to bite them.

Suddenly a pall of silence has descended over the Dome (as the central administration building at USM is called). With the help of his remaining backers on the state College Board, Thames has staved off being fired until at least May 20 (when the next regularly scheduled Board meeting takes place). But the sudden removal of his Chief Hatchet Man, Jack Hanbury, who had personally investigated the two professors Thames tried to fire on March 5, has shown Thames just how vulnerable he has become.

Officially, Hanbury, who is not talking to the press, is on"administrative leave" till June 30, after which his contract will not be renewed. On Thursday, Mader refused to say whether Hanbury's infamous April 30 email to the deans, ordering them to violate the Mississippi Public Records Act, had anything to do with his sudden decision to resign. On Friday, Mader further claimed that the faculty, staff, and students of USM have no grounds for complaint about Thames' continued leadership, in light of"administrative changes that have occurred".

In fact, Hanbury reported directly to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood at the time, so Hood fired him, not Thames. But Thames cannot publicly admit that he lacks the power to protect his chief enforcer, nor can he assert that he fired Hanbury himself without being publicly contradicted by a top state official. Hence the purposely evasive language, followed by silence.

What's more, it has become clear that Hanbury, who has not been listed on the official budget report that includes all USM employees whose salaries and benefits are paid out of state funds, was actually being paid by the USM Research Foundation...which, in turn, is run by the Vice-President for Research...who, in turn, is Angelina Dvorak. So the conflict of interest in which Hanbury was embroiled, when he undertook to investigate two professors who questioned Angie Dvorak's credentials, was even worse than observers realized at the time. They knew that Hanbury was the former law partner of Mark Dvorak, Angie's husband, but they didn't know that he was being paid out of a budget she controlled.

Observers have also reported that at the hearing on April 28, the settlement papers were drawn up by Lee Gore, the University Counsel whom Thames pushed aside when he hired Hanbury as"Director of Risk Management." (Thames couldn't fire Gore, because in the Mississippi state system, the head attorney at each state university reports to the Attorney General and not to the institution's president or to the College Board.) Apparently the hearing officer, retired state Supreme Court Judge Reuben Anderson, did not consider Hanbury competent to draw up the settlement papers and insisted that Gore take on the reponsibility.

Even denser silence surrounds the fate of Mark Dvorak. By all indications, the less powerful Dvorak, who according to informed sources was a completely incompetent Director of Human Resources, has been removed from his job, but there has yet to be any public statment about his status. Some sources claim that Attorney General Hood's office was investigating Human Resources at USM for violations of state laws, but there is no confirmation of that either.

Friday morning, a respected Professor of English named David Berry, who has taught at USM for 30 years, made a public announcement that he was taking early retirement, because he no longer wished to be associated with a university that was under the control of Shelby Thames. Berry took three teaching award plaques that he had received during his years at USM, and broke them over his knee. He also stamped on his 30-year service pin.

Friday afternoon, the USM Faculty Senate held its scheduled monthly meeting. Thames was not on hand, and Senators were no doubt relieved that they no longer had to contend with Hanbury, who had been sent to put a chill on every Senate meeting since he was hired a year ago. But a Gulfport politician named Billy Hewes who vocally supports Thames (and has been rewarded with a slot as commencement speaker at the upcoming graduation ceremony for the Gulf Park satellite campus) was on hand for the beginning of the meeting, and Faculty Senate President Myron Henry was asked to read to the Senate the full text of a supposedly conciliatory letter from Thames. The letter, which Thames emailed to faculty and staff, but not students, on Thursday, was a gross apologia for his presidency that failed to admit a single bad act or error of judgment, by him or by any member of his henchcrew. It is also replete with false claims about Thames' purported accomplishments that would consume far too much space to get into here (I will provide a detailed analysis of the Thames letter in my next post).

The Faculty Senate, which Thames has refused to speak to since it voted 40-0 in favor of a resolution of no confidence in him, and which he is now trying to replace with a President's University Council handpicked by compliant deans, was not swayed. It voted 39-1, with 1 abstention, in favor of a resolution that detailed the failures of the Thames regime, pointedly noted that his talents lay in research and teaching, and requested his immediate resignation. The Senate also approved a letter to the College Board asking for an end to the unrestrained monitoring of campus email that the Thames regime has indulged in. Plus The Senate unanimously approved a motion to ask the state Auditor, Phil Bryant, to investigate the hiring of Vice-Presidents and other upper administrators by the Thames regime, to determine whether national searches were conducted and equal employment opportunity practices were followed. (As far as anyone knows, Jack Hanbury and Mark Dvorak were hired without searches of any kind.)

How much longer will be before Thames has to make a public announcement about Mark Dvorak? Before Angie Dvorak is pushed out? Before Thames loses other key members of his henchcrew?

Stay tuned, and keep following the breaking news at the Fire Shelby site.