Mississippi Today
USM admin say program cuts are necessary to afford future pay raises for faculty, staff
The University of Southern Mississippi will look at cutting under-enrolled programs even though administrators say it is not facing a financial crisis.
The budget is balanced, despite a four-year period of decreasing revenue and increasing costs, and USM has adequate cash reserves.
The move is necessary, top leaders said at last month’s convocation, so the research institution in Hattiesburg can survive the increasingly competitive future facing higher education in Mississippi by becoming a “unicorn” among its peers, offering programs students want and the state needs.
“Colleagues, this is plain and simply the reality of where we are in higher education today, and progressive institutions all across the landscape are doing the same,” President Joe Paul told faculty on Aug. 19, according to a video the university has since taken off YouTube after faculty and staff had a chance to watch it. “We can no longer simply kick the can down the road and hope things can get better. We will instead take charge of our future and crease a uniquely positioned, distinctive public research universty of which we can all be proud and feel ownership.”
Paul added that cuts are also one of the few ways the university can afford more pay raises for its faculty and staff, some of whom will receive merit raises this fall for the first time in eight years. (After protesting, minimum wage workers at USM won a pay raise two years ago.)
“My goal for us is not to go another eight years before offering raises again, that accomplishes little,” Paul said. “If we are to develop a true salary increase plan that is competitive and sustainable, we simply must continue to do two things with discipline and consistency. One, we must all continue to grow the enrollment through recruitment and retention โฆ while also continuing to find efficiencies and decrease spending as an institution.”
USM was able to afford the raises, which total about $4.4 million, through what Paul described as two years of systematic reductions in administrative spending. The university cut 22 unfilled and six filled positions at its Hattiesburg and Gulf Park campuses.
An increase in state appropriations also helped support the raise, but USM isn’t able to say how much because “the raises come from the university’s operating budget and the amount is not broken down by revenue source,” Nicole Ruhnke, a spokesperson, wrote in an email.
The raises addressed a significant concern for faculty at USM who held a protest for fair pay earlier this year.
Low salaries are an issue across Mississippi’s higher education system, which has struggled to attract and retain talented faculty. In recent years, the governing board of Mississippi’s eight universities has repeatedly heard how Mississippi’s faculty and staff are paid well below the average salary of other Southern states.
In an effort to fix that, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees asked the Legislature to provide $53 million in funding this year so that each university could afford a 6.4% raise.
IHL’s spokesperson John Sewell wrote in an email that the system ultimately received $27 million in unrestricted new funding, not enough for 6.4% increase.
That funding also needed to cover other inflationary costs facing the institutions, like PERS and health insurance, Sewell wrote.
Therefore, IHL left the final decision on raises up to the institutions, so Sewell could not say how much each university spent. Plus, the system’s final appropriation bill, which IHL negotiates on behalf of the eight institutions, did not include specific language regarding raises.
“IHL did not prescribe a fixed amount of new funding to be dedicated to raises as the individual institutions needed the flexibility to balance the increased costs for PERS and health insurance along with other inflationary costs before considering the amount for possible raises,” Sewell wrote.
Those costs are also driving USM administrators’ review of under-enrolled programs, which comprise a minority of USM’s programs.
Lance Nail, the provost, is leading that effort. In response to questions from Mississippi Today, Nail and Paul did not participate in an interview but provided statements.
Nail wrote that details about the program review will be worked out in the coming weeks in consultation with faculty, staff and administration.
“We will look at each under-enrolled academic program individually in collaboration with the deans, school directors and faculty, and determine what has led to low enrollment, student and market demand, as well as other contributions the program provides within the academy.” Nail noted. “These include the program’s contributions to the general education core, pre-major requirements, research and service.”
Last fall, USM deleted three degrees after IHL’s academic productivity review, which is triggered when a program is deemed to have too few graduates in a three-year period. Those degrees were a bachelors in international studies, and doctoral degrees in music education and criminal justice.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
AT&T, union reach deal ending strike
AT&T workers are back on the job today after the company reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America to end a month-long strike in the Southeast.
The new deal includes a 19.33% pay increase for all workers, and more affordable healthcare premiums.
Wire technicians and utility operations employes get an extra 3% pay increase.
In a statement, CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. praised the solidarity of the striking workers.
โI believe in the power of unity, and the unity our members and retirees have shown during these contract negotiations has been outstanding and gave our bargaining teams the backing they needed to deliver strong contracts,โ he said.
CWA district president Jermaine Travis told Mississippi Today that he and his coworkers are happy to be back at work.ย
โIt’s been a long month, so everybody is excited to get back to work and get back to taking care of business,โ he said.
Travis also noted the significance of the strike, the longest telecommunications strike in the Southeast.
โI think we’re gonna look back at this strike, at this moment in history, and see it was really important for workers to stand up for the rights and force companies to do right by them, so I think we did a good thing,โ he said.
AT&T has also reached a tentative agreement with the CWA in the West.
“As we’ve said since day 1, our goal has been to reach fair agreements that recognize the hard work our employees do to serve our customers with competitive market-based pay and benefits that are among the best in the nation — and that’s exactly what was accomplished,โ AT&T said in a released statement. โThese agreements also support our competitive position in the broadband industry where we can grow and win against our mostly non-union competitors.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1925
Sept. 16, 1925
โThe King of the Bluesโ was born Riley B. King on a plantation near Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers.
While singing in the church choir, he watched the pastor playing a Sears Roebuck guitar and told the preacher he wanted to learn how to play. By age 12, he had his own guitar and began listening to the blues on the radio. After playing in churches, he went to Memphis to pursue a music career in 1948, playing on the radio and working as a deejay who was known as โBlues Boyโ and eventually โB.B.โ
Within a year, B.B. King was recording songs, many of them produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. In 1952, โ3 O’Clock Bluesโ became a hit, and dozens followed.
While others sought to bring change through the courts, King did it through music. The songs that he and other blues artists created drew many listeners across racial lines. One of the biggest fans walked into the studio one day and called him โsir.โ His name? Elvis Presley, whose first big hit was the blues song, โThat’s All Right, Mama.โ
King explained that music was like water โ something โfor every living person and every living thing.โ His smash hit, โThe Thrill Is Gone,โ made him an international star and led to collaborations with some of the world’s greatest artists.
He survived a fire that almost burned up his beloved guitar, โLucille,โ and won 18 Grammys as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Both Time and Rolling Stone magazines ranked him as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
In 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the greatest civilian honor. Two years later, his hometown of Indianola honored him by opening the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. After he died in 2015, thousands flocked to the Mississippi Delta for the wake and funeral.
โHands that once picked cotton,โ the preacher told the crowd, โwould someday pick guitar strings on a national and international stage.โ He performed till the end, telling Rolling Stone in 2013 that he had only missed 18 days of performing in 65 years. He died two years later at 89 after battling diabetes for decades.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: Sen. David Blount discusses tax cuts, retirement system, mobile sports betting
State Sen. David Blount sits down with Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison and Adam Ganucheau to discuss the push for income tax elimination and how that would affect the state’s budget. He also talks about needed funding for the state’s troubledย retirement system and whether Mississippi will soon adopt mobile sports betting.
READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs
The post Podcast: Sen. David Blount discusses tax cuts, retirement system, mobile sports betting appeared first on Mississippi Today.
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