Settlement at Univ. of Southern Miss.

The hearing for two professors suspended by USM president Shelby Thames was supposed to be held Wednesday and Thursday of this week. However, the proceedings ended in the afternoon of the first day. The settlement was secret until the college board reviewed such and issued a statement which happened today. Information on the hearing is available at www.printz.usm.edu (the student newspaper - be sure to check out the opinion piece from the executive editor (http://www.printz.usm.edu/opinions.html - scroll down to "Privacy?" by Rachel Quinlivan) about her name being brought up by the president during the hearing) and www.hattiesburgamerican.com. The HA also has the text of the agreement in today's issue.

Termination proceedings were stopped and the professors employment is assured for the next two years although they won't be teaching students. There's some interesting discussion about this and other settlement issues at the "Fire Shelby forum" that jchild mentioned recently: http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=18872&subForumID=21279.

Being a native of Hattiesburg, a current college employee, and the kid of a USM alum, I have followed events at Southern with some degree of interest (despite the fact that my dad "allowed me" - his words - to go to Miss. State). While I believe Thames is at the top of his class as a scientist, I have never been confident in his ability to lead as president. It will be interesting to see how things unfold over the next few weeks and months as the school tries to move forward.

I'd love to hear what others think of the outcome of the hearing, particularly fellow college/university folks (jchild are you out there?). It appears the professors did what was best for themselves, their families and their students although there are some who don't agree. I do feel this is still not over as long as the current administration is still in power. (that sounds familiar)

Oh, and if you do go over to the Hattiesburg American check out today's poll asking if we have become safer from the threat of terror during the * administration. When I placed my "no" vote it was 50.7% yes, 49.3% no.