Settlement Reached at Southern Mississippi

Academe, Sep/Oct 2004 by Knight, Jonathan

A settlement was reached in April in the cases of two tenured professors who were suspended from their duties and faced dismissal on charges of misconduct stemming from a controversy in which local AAUP leaders questioned the credentials of a university vice president. The actions of University of Southern Mississippi president Shelby Thames against professors Francis Glamser and Gary Stringer drew a firestorm of criticism on the campus, where the faculty voted 430 to 32 in support of the faculty senate's no-confidence vote in the administration. Faculty bodies on other Mississippi campuses and the AAUP's national office also voiced concerns.

The controversy led the statewide board of trustees for Mississippi colleges and universities to ask the state attorney general to intervene. A hearing was convened before a retired state supreme court justice, in which Thames testified. Dut the hearing was halted as the two professors and the administration, encouraged by the presiding judge, worked out the terms of a settlement. An expert witness on academic freedom brought in by the AAUl^ to testify the next morning was therefore not needed.

The settlement provided for payment of the professors' salaries for two years but not for their return to the university. Stringer has since announced that he has accepted an appointment at Texas A&M University, and Glamser has announced his retirement.

Controversy continues to plague the University of Southern Mississippi, however. Shortly after the settlements were disclosed, the university's faculty senate, by a vote of 39 to 1, again expressed no confidence in the administration and called on the board of trustees to request the president's resignation. The administration has established a council to "assist with and facilitate communications throughout the campus." Some faculty leaders have expressed concern that this council is meant to supplant the authority of the faculty senate.

-J.K.