2/4/05

Dr. D. Jay Grimes

Provost

The University of Southern Mississippi

118 College Drive # 5002

Hattiesburg, MS 39406

Dear Provost Grimes:

I am in receipt of your letter dated February 3, 2005 detailing your recollection of our meeting on January 21, 2005.  Your letter contains factual errors, misrepresentations and omissions.  As a consequence of these inaccuracies, I am compelled to offer this response to correct the record.

Tourism Management

Your recollection of our discussion about Tourism Management is largely correct.  I did object to Mr. Wilson’s appointment as department chair.  However, you omitted the primary reason for my objection – Mr. Wilson appears to be neither professionally nor academically qualified according to AACSB guidelines.  Thus, I do not believe it would be prudent to place Mr. Wilson in the position as interim Department Chair.  As I stated, Mr. Wilson is a valued faculty member and an asset to the school.  As such, I have every intention of rewarding and supporting Mr. Wilson as a faculty member.  Mr. Wilson can continue to teach undergraduate courses because the AACSB requires that only 90% of the faculty be either professionally or academically qualified.  We may encounter some difficulties because we have only a single qualified faculty member on the coast, but I do not believe we need to address that problem this semester.

You omitted that both Dr. Niroomand and I were reluctant in our recommendation of Mr. Taylor.  Our reluctance was based, in part, on placing an individual who is currently an instructor, and at best will be a newly minted Ph.D., in a supervisory role over associate and full professors.  In fact, Dr. Niroomand suggested that we could perhaps fill the interim chair position with Dr. Henthorne, who is already a tenured, full professor and is currently listed on the Gulf Park budget.  You and Dr. Malone were not receptive to the suggestion. 

I realize that there may be legal difficulties surrounding the hiring of a new department chair for Tourism Management.  As I have previously stated, I believe that gender was used as a motivating factor when an offer of employment was not extended to a previous candidate.  At that time I advised you, President Thames, and Dr. Malone that in my opinion your decision to override the recommendation of the faculty, the department, and the dean of the College of Business was unwise and could have negative legal consequences for the university.

Finally, please recall that I suggested we use the vacant line for an Assistant Professor at the Gulf Park campus to support a new hire to help with the Charcoal Room should we appoint Mr. Taylor as interim chair.  In the short-term this would require transferring the Gulf Park line to the Hattiesburg campus.  While it is true that I do not know the exact cost to fill the line, or even if we should fill the line with a tenure track versus a visiting professor, I am certain that I can fill the position for less than the $70,000 dollars currently allocated for the position.

Economic Education

I take exception to your statement that there was a lack of CoB support for the K-12 economic education program.  A review of the facts reveals that the CoB has been the driving force behind the economic education efforts in the southern part of the state on behalf of Southern Miss for an extended period.  Our initial efforts in late 2003 resulted in a funding proposal submitted to the Vice President of Research and Economic Development under the cover of the College of Education and Psychology.  This routing was necessary because the person best able to deliver the program, Susan Doty, is my spouse.  The request for funding was denied by the university.  The next effort at establishing this program began when I initiated a meeting between myself, Pam Smith, and Ted Alexander.  As a consequence of this meeting, Dr. Smith and Dr. Alexander met with Ms. Doty.  Drs. Smith and Alexander concluded that Ms. Doty was the ideal person to deliver economic education programs and agreed with Ms. Doty to move forward.  The College of Business, represented by Ms. Doty, initiated the program on Economic Education at Southern Miss when Ms. Doty participated in her first seminar on or about September 2, 2004.

Your statement that I “said that [I] did not have any faculty that would be interested in the economic education” is factually incorrect.  I did state that the person who had initially agreed to nominally guide the program did not express sufficient interest in the program.  Further, I did state that I had not yet identified another faculty member to lead the program, nor had I begun selling the idea to another faculty member.  Finally, I did state that none of the CoB planned searches would explicitly include a faculty member with primary expertise in economic education.  That statement was based on my professional opinion that hiring such an assistant professor who would not join the university for almost a year was a poor use of resources and would slow the development of the program.  It appears that the empirical evidence supports my professional opinion.  I have a current CoB faculty member with a Ph.D. in economics who has agreed to serve as head of the economic education program.  I have implemented an organizational structure approved by representatives from the Mississippi Council on Economic Education.  The CoB was actively involved in the economic education program before the September 13 meeting and has continued to develop and deliver the program for several months.  In January 2005 alone the CoB participated in the delivery of five seminars that delivered economic education to over 100 K-12 teachers.  When I informed you and President Thames with the good news that the CoB was actively involved with the economic education program I received a reply from President Thames thanking me for sharing the good news.  My understanding is that, to date, the Department of Economic Development has made no progress and has delivered no economic education to K-12 teachers.

Your statement that you informed me of two meetings that included Drs. Malone, Grimes, Smith, and Alexander is misleading.  It is true that I was informed of these two meetings; however I was not informed by you of these meetings until our discussion on January 21, 2005.  To imply that I knew of the two meetings prior to January 21, 2005 is inappropriate.

Your statement that you have never authorized me to implement this program is factually incorrect.  In late October, 2004 I met with you in your office to discuss the strategic plan for the business school.  At this meeting I explicitly discussed the progress the CoB was making on the economic education program and our future plans.  At the conclusion of this meeting you instructed me to continue with all of the plans we had discussed.  Specifically, you told me that there was nothing we (the CoB) were currently doing that we should not be doing, and there was nothing we were not doing that we should be doing.  You acknowledged your previous statement in our meeting on January 21, 2005. 

The second time you approved this program was when I presented the strategic plan for the business school to President Thames in late November.  Please review the documents and you will see that economic education was explicitly included in the presentation.  At the end of my presentation you were explicitly asked by President Thames if you had any problems with the plans.  You said you would like to “chew” on the plan for a while, but if you had any objections you would let me know within one week.  To date, you have expressed no objections to the plan I presented.  Given your statement, I believe that the lack of stated objections constitutes approval.

The third time you approved my implementation of the economic education program was at the end of the meeting on January 21.  With Drs. Niroomand, Moore, and Malone present, I explicitly asked if we (the CoB) should move forward with our efforts in economic education.  You replied affirmatively.  I believe your exact words were “yes, we don’t want to stop anything we’re doing.”

Master’s of Business Administration

Your recollection of our discussion concerning the MBA program is largely accurate although you have omitted the discussion that the MBA program may be the largest Master’s program at Southern Miss.  You are correct that I would not promise the delivery of an alternative delivery format for the MBA program by the Fall, 2005 semester.  This new program requires faculty development and approval.  (Please review your statements about the EMBA program included in the proposal to renovate the Gulf Park library.)  In the current political environment, I was reluctant to state with certainty the outcome of a process that is political in nature. 

While I continue to push for a hybrid MBA I must inform you that the launch of such a program by your desired date is problematic.  First, in our meeting with the SACS consultant, we were explicitly told not to launch any new programs while on SACS probation.  My understanding is that we will be on SACS probation through, at a minimum, December, 2005.  Second, the hybrid MBA program that we are developing is a new program and much of the program will be delivered electronically.  As such, the new program probably requires following the substantive change procedures dictated by SACS.  Given that the hybrid delivery format is a distance learning program, and that our distance learning activities are a primary cause of our current probationary status, I believe it would be a grave mistake to launch the program without following SACS procedures.  Further, I think it is unlikely that SACS will conduct the necessary on-site committee review and approve the program prior to the beginning of the Fall, 2005 semester.  However, I will forward to SACS a letter articulating the planned initiation date of this program and my concerns.  I will ask SACS to clarify how we should proceed.

At this juncture I should also alert you to my concerns about the Jackson County MBA program that was launched by you and Dr. Malone in the Fall, 2004 semester.  I am concerned that this new program probably required a substantive change form, a site review by SACS, and SACS approval prior to initiation.  Please recall that SACS may have informed us that Southern Miss had not demonstrated, to the Commission’s satisfaction, effective educational oversight of our distance education.  To the best of my knowledge, no substantive change documents have been filed.  I am further concerned that SACS appears to require faculty participation in the development and launch of such a program.  The CoB faculty were not consulted or informed of this program prior to the press conference announcing the new program.  Please send to me copies of the substantive change documents associated with the new Jackson County MBA program for the CoB records.

I am also concerned about your repeated statements that we should position the College of Business to compete with William Carey and University of Phoenix.  Such statements are particularly troubling in light of your recent statement to me that you did not care about AACSB accreditation.  I have been slowly informing the business community about your instructions and the initial reactions are not positive.  I believe that implementing your instructions will have a significant negative effect on the university and our development activities.  I do not think the CoB alumni are supportive of your decision.  However, I will continue to implement your instructions.

College of Business Salaries

I have reviewed the national salary data included in the 2004-2005 AACSB Salary Survey for public AACSB accredited business schools.  In all but three cases, the average salaries for Southern Miss business faculty are below the respective AACSB averages.  Thus, while I cannot speak for Dr. Gunther, I have not made accusations I have merely stated facts.  Further, consistent with the President Thames’ public statements that Southern Miss is in the top 10% of U.S. universities, one can easily argue that the relevant reference point is the 90th percentile rather than the average salary.

College of Business Teaching Loads

The data you presented about CoB teaching loads did not include AY 2004-2005.  You included only a single semester.  Current teaching loads in the CoB are consistent with our peer and aspirant comparison institutions.  Recent data provided by you to the Executive Cabinet revealed that the average credit hour production of faculty in the CoB was one of the higher averages on campus.  However, I will continue to review faculty teaching loads per your instructions.

College of Business Focus

I am simply stunned by your assertion that the CoB should not be concerned with theoretical/basic research.  Basic research is a root cause of knowledge creation.  Knowledge creation is the heart of science.  As such, basic research is a key driver of a university’s reputation.  Further, I believe that your statement threatens the academic freedom of faculty.  However, I will present your statement to the faculty verbatim so that they understand this is your directive.  I will not engage in such egregious anti-intellectualism.    

Since I have become dean I have stated that the CoB must develop an intellectual contribution profile that is consistent both with the university mission and the CoB mission.  We are currently discussing a profile which would strive to achieve a balance of scholarship that focuses on the scholarship of discovery (40%), the scholarship of application (40%) and the scholarship of teaching (20%).  I will discuss this balance with other AACSB schools before it is finalized.  I will also consult our AACSB peer and aspirant comparison schools.  I remind you that in the last few weeks applied research conducted by CoB faculty has been headlined in both newspaper and television news from Jackson to the Mississippi coast.

AACSB Update

Your recollection that we did not discuss progress toward AACSB accreditation is largely correct.  However, I did report that the CoB was making progress.  We have approved a new mission, adopted core values, approved new mission relevant learning outcomes, initiated curriculum revisions, and are following the AACSB timetable for learning outcome assessment and continuous improvement.  Additionally, there has been a significant improvement in the efforts to generate intellectual contributions in the college.  Given your recent statement that you do not care about AACSB accreditation, I request that you send me written instructions determining whether the CoB should continue to seek ongoing AACSB accreditation.

Sincerely,

D. Harold Doty

Dean, College of Business

c.                Dr. Shelby Thames, President

Dr. Farhang Niroomand, Associate Dean, College of Business

bc:       Frank D. Montague, Jr. Esq.

            Robert B. McDuff, Esq.