A Thames Lieutenant Is Finally Leaving the University of Southern Mississippi
In May of this year, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, the governing board of the entire state university system in Mississippi, agreed to keep Shelby Thames, the embattled president of the University of Southern Mississippi, in office until his term expires in 2006.
But continued sponsorship by a majority on the IHL Board came at a price. Thames was required to cut loose three underqualified cronies whom he had installed in high administrative posts at USM, for no apparent reason except their willingness to carry out his dictates without question. Because all three had previously lived and worked in Kentucky, where they had close personal ties, they were known on campus as the"Kentucky mafia."
In early May, Jack Hanbury, Thames'"Director of Risk Management," was fired, either on the orders of the Board, or of the Mississippi Attorney General's office, which has authority over university attorneys in the state system. Around the same time (though the public announcement was delayed), Hanbury's former law partner, Mark Dvorak, the Director of Human Resources, got the call to pack his trunk and roam.
But Mark Dvorak's wife Angie, the most important member of the Kentucky mafia, remained in office.
Thames had made her Vice-President for Research and Economic Development, even though she had never been a tenured faculty member at a four-year institution and under USM rules was unqualified for the job (which included evaluating faculty members for promotion and tenure. What's more, she had misrepresented her faculty status by claiming that she had been a Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. In fact, she had been President of Ashland (KY) Community College, at a time when that administrative position came packaged with a courtesy tenured faculty title in the University of Kentucky system. In January 2004 local media outlets reported that she was suspected of lying on her vita. In March, Thames put USM in the headlines by attempting to fire two tenured professors, Frank Glamser and Gary Stringer, for investigating her credentials. At the end of April, when Glamser and Stringer's appeals were heard, the IHL Board imposed a settlement under which USM would have to pay them for another two years, but both could be forced to retire after that.
By late May, Thames must have been told that Angie Dvorak would also have to go, for he tried to arrange a job for her at the Area Development Partnership, the economic development agency for the three counties in the Hattiesburg area. But the ADP had just hired a new president. In June, Thames announced that Dvorak was being replaced as Vice-President for Research but moved her into a supposedly subordinate position, as Director of the USM Research Foundation-- where she would receive the same salary as before.
As it turned out, Phillip Halstead was pushed out of the ADP presidency in August, after a little more than 3 months in office. On Thursday November 4, the ADP announced that it was hiring Angie Dvorak as its new president.
An admiring follow-up story in the Hattiesburg American, which ran on Friday, suggests that the local newspaper may be returning to its one-time editorial alignment with the Thames regime; the controversy over Angie Dvorak's vita has been wholly absorbed into her self-promoting narrative.
All the same, it's clear from the article that a lot of political pressure had been applied to the ADP:
About [an] hour after Dvorak [gave her acceptance speech], Hattiesburg businessman Clyde Bryant resigned from the ADP's board of directors as well as from the Hattiesburg-Forrest County Industrial Park Commission because of Dvorak's selection.
Bryant, who did not vote Wednesday but spoke to ADP treasurer Frank McWhorter by phone from the meeting, said he would not have voted for Dvorak and believes she is a polarizing influence, citing the protests on campus and controversy surrounding her earlier this year. He called her selection"a mistake".
"I hope I'm wrong," Bryant said."I'm willing to suffer whatever repercussions."
He said others on the board feel the way he does but are unwilling to speak publicly about their concerns. Bryant also serves on the Hattiesburg School Board.
But McWhorter, who was on the search committee, was unfazed by Bryant's resignation or his criticisms.
"I'm at great peace with myself about this," he said."I'm disappointed that he would resign without giving us any chance to explain."
At the meeting, Dvorak was embraced by ADP's membership and her peers.
"She is a breath of fresh air and she will only help to improve the current business climate of the greater Hattiesburg area," said Paige York-Losee, chairwoman of the ADP.
Mitch Stennett, director of the Economic Development Authority of Jones County, called Dvorak's speech similar to President Bush's presidential speech in that it was focused on uniting people in the wake of controversy.
I thought regular readers of Liberty and Power would particularly appreciate that final paragraph.
Angie Dvorak's new salary is $10,000 a year less than USM has been paying her. Many observers believe, however, that the difference will be made up by the university, most likely in the form of a consulting contract.
Angie Dvorak's departure from USM is richly deserved, but badly overdue. It deprives Shelby Thames of an enforcer. But Dvorak became a crippling political liability for Thames several months ago, and other administrators (particularly the deans of the five colleges at USM, all of whom were handpicked by Thames since he took office) have been stepping forward to do Thames' dirty work. And by putting him into complete compliance with the IHL Board's conditions, Dvorak's exit seals the guarantee that Thames will remain in power through May 2006. Indeed, faculty members at USM are increasingly worried that he will be granted another four-year term beyond that.