USM: Thames' Most Vocal Backer Attempts a Preemptive Strike

At the University of Southern Mississippi, the Faculty Senate is considering a second resolution of no confidence in president Shelby F. Thames. The crucial meeting began at 5 PM today on the main campus in Hattiesburg.

During the nonstop crises that have characterized the Shelby Thames regime since the fall of 2003, Roy Klumb, the current President of the Mississippi IHL Board of Trustees, has become his most vocal backer.

So it should come as a shock to no one that Klumb was out front yesterday, in the pages of the Hattiesburg American, telling the USM Faculty Senate not to bother with the no confidence resolution because he's already made up his mind to ignore it.

Shelby Thames['] job as president of the University of Southern Mississippi is safe and any effort by the school's faculty to hold a vote of no confidence would have little impact on the state College Board, the panel's president said Monday.

"I don't see how that it would be prudent to remove the president right now," said Roy Klumb of Gulfport.

But even Klumb's advocacy is wearing thin. He has run out of praise for Thames' sage leadership and exceptional management skills. He is no longer trying to convince anyone of USM's"world class" status. He has given up minimizing the seriousness of USM's accreditation problems.

If Thames were to be removed, the options for the College Board are limited, Klumb said.

"We have no president in waiting," Klumb said."We can't go back to Dr. (Aubrey) Lucas [the long-time president of USM who came out of retirement to serve on an interim basis in 2001-2002]. We have no one in our system that can sit in that chair. We have no one at USM that can sit in that chair. We can't sit here facing a death bill from SACS without a president, without a leader. It doesn't make sense to me."

What doesn't make sense is Klumb's notion that no one can replace Thames.

Shelby Thames is a 68-year-old man with a bad heart. Any Board of Trustees would have to be thinking about possible successors to someone of his age and health status.

In December, the Board asked an experienced university system administrator, Richard Crofts, to monitor the accreditation situation at USM. Crofts is presently the interim IHL Commissioner, but the Board is in the process of hiring a permanent commissioner. If the Board made Crofts an attractive offer, he could be ensconced in the Dome (as USM's central administration building is known) before the spring semester is out.

Klumb did get one thing right. There are no possible successors in USM's upper administration. Thames' major henchpeople (such as"Chief Operating Officer" Ken Malone and Chief Financial Officer Gregg Lassen) were put in place because they share his ruthlessness and his complete disrespect for the university's mission. His minor henchpeople (such as his Special Assistant in charge of accreditation, Joan Exline, and his Dean of Arts and Letters, Elliot Pood) have little credibility now and will have none at all once Thames is gone. And because Thames is strongly opposed to letting academic officials make academic decisions, his Provost, Jay Grimes, sits and waits for orders from the major henchmen.

The USM Faculty Senate needs to throw Klumb's pronouncements back in his face, by voting no confidence in Shelby Thames, asking the Board to appoint Richard Crofts in his place -- then following up with a resolution of no confidence in Roy Klumb.

And if anyone still thinks that Thames and his henchpeople are going to help get USM off probation with its accrediting body--check out the new Web page for USM's department of Economic and Workforce Development. (E and WD now houses the Master's program that was hastily shifted out of the College of Business into the College of Science and Technology.) In 6 months at USM, Judson Edwards has gone from Assistant Professor to Visiting Assistant Professor back to Assistant Professor. As of January 1, Ken Malone has been promoted from Assistant Professor all the way to Full Professor, apparently without being hired to a tenure-track faculty psoition, or applying for a promotion. He has failed to leave any of the paper trail that goes along with such personnel actions. Are faculty titles in the Economic Development program created and altered by presidential fiat? And if they are, does Shelby Thames think he can sneak them past the site visitors who will be arriving soon from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools?