*From one full professor's point of view

 

PRIDE

at the College of Business at the University of Southern Mississippi*

 

Our core mission reflects taking PRIDE in all we do - Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, Excellence

As part of our efforts to gather as many facts as possible, we -- students and teacher -- invited Dean Doty to discuss the decision to require all business students to purchase the Wall Street Journal. Instead of accepting the invitation, Dean Doty, as I learned through an Open Records Request, instructed my department chairman to investigate me for a violation of professional ethics.  You may be surprised to learn that Dr. Doty did not discuss his concern with me.  He did not discuss the case with me.  He did not offer suggestions on how the case might be improved.  He simply went to the department chair to investigate me for a violation of professional ethics.

Did the case study for which Dean Doty wanted my ethics investigated have value?  I think so, but let’s apply a publicly verifiable, independent standard.  Last year, The Wall Street Journal Academic Partnership study was submitted for publication to a quality journal (an “A” level journal in CoB parlance.) The editors have encouraged revision and resubmission.

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Nor did Dean Doty's retaliation end there.  That year, Dean Doty participated in assigning a score of zero in the annual evaluation of my research. Our College Tenure and Promotion Committee, in response to my appeal, unanimously found that the evaluation “appears to have been assigned in an arbitrary manner.” The 2004 annual appeal is still on Provost Grimes' desk two years later.