bring out the best in each other.

A young woman sitting next to me said she had driven up from the coast just to see the performance of "her favorite book."  She was not disappointed.

Faculty and staff can now add their physical location to their directory info which is accessed via our website.  I firmly believe that it will help students on our campuses if they have a physical location for our offices.  It only takes 30 seconds to add this info to your directory listing.

Here's how:

Log into SOAR with your employee ID and password.

Click on "Self Service"

Look under "USM Self Service" and select "Update Online Directory".  This screen allows you to choose how your   name, contact information, and location details are displayed.    

Once completed, select "Save" to record your information.  It usually takes a few hours before your updated information appears in the directory. 

Please take advantage of this capability to help our students.  For assistance, contact the iTech Help Desk at 601.266.4357.

The Roberts Stadium is used Monday through Thursday nights for Intramural club sport practices. The lights will be out by no later than 11pm each night. There is now a back-up plan in place to insure that the lights are turned off.

We have several sports clubs (men's soccer, men's and women's rugby, ultimate Frisbee) that compete against other university clubs. The intramural fields stay packed with regular intramural sports. I hope we can soon provide additional intramural/recreational sports fields to meet the needs of our students. 

Tailgaters started early.

Gerald MacRath broke away from his Tennessee Titan duties to hang out with the Eagles and one of his biggest fans.

Final score:  Golden Eagles 43 -- Tulane 6

In the past, our faculty and staff have enjoyed some of these opportunities, and such occasions provided the foundation for that Southern Miss family feeling.   About nine months ago, I named two committees to investigate the re-establishment of a University Club on both of our campuses.  The Gulf Coast committee has made recommendations, and they are under serious consideration at this time.  The Hattiesburg committee has presented recommendations to my Executive Cabinet as well, and those recommendations included our using a temporary site at Conestoga Steak House II until a permanent site can be identified.  Invitations to upcoming open houses have been sent out via campus emails and flyers. 

First, let me reassure you that this venture is not coming from University funds.  Instead these open houses are financed completely by the reserves left by the original University Club organization.  Conestoga is allowing us to use their facility on certain Tuesday evenings at no charge. 

Second, let me encourage you to take these opportunities to get to know your colleagues across campus and to see what a University Club has to offer to our faculty and staff.  In these difficult economic times, we need each other more than ever as we unite to make our University even stronger.  An open house with complimentary hors d'oeuvres sounds pretty good to me!

Congratulations to Athletic Director, Richard Giannini, and his talented staff for setting high goals for success for our student athletes and sticking to their values.  

The Provost will chair the committee overseeing a national search.  I expect many good candidates will be attracted to Southern Miss, not only for our established research enterprise, but also for our great potential.

Dear Dr. Saunders:

I attended the University of Virginia-Southern Miss game last weekend.  It was certainly an exciting game, although my Wahoos eventually got worn down by your team.  The fact of the win or the loss is not the reason for this letter.

I did want you to know that I was extremely impressed with both the school spirit of your students and alumni, but more particularly in their appropriate response to college football and the competition.  Before the game, Virginia had a small tent with some pretzels, nuts, etc.  One of the tailgating Southern Miss fans decided that we were certainly suffering, invited us to their much larger tent, and offered us barbecue ribs, barbecue chicken, briskets, and all the trimmings.  They went above and beyond in offering hospitality.

After the game we were stopped by at least a dozen students or alumni who paused to say "good game" etc.  I thought this was particularly impressive considering the general attitude the you see in students and fans at some schools in the Southeastern Conference.

Congratulations on presiding over a school that sees college sports in the proper perspective.

Yours very truly,

KARL W. BOYLES

Congratulations to our coaches and team for setting good examples on and off the field.

Martha,

Saturday mornng, I arrived at Pride Field at 6 AM to help set up for the Heart Walk.  Gary Kimble was already there with a big group of Phi Kaps moving tables, chairs and other heavy items.  Susan Bone and several of her colleagues were also hard at work.  As the sun came up, more and more of your faithful, generous staff, faculty, and students began to appear.  We had a really nice turnout -- it seemed even larger than last year.

On Thursday night (Bank Night for the Heart Walk), Southern Miss turned in almost $15,000!  Donations were still flowing in Saturday, so I am guessing that our total will be over $17,000.  This amount more than doubles what Southern Miss folks donated last year!   The students were really much more involved this year thanks to the leadership of lots of Student Affiars folks. 

It is always so heartwarming to see how generous our Southern Miss folks can be when they embrace a very worthy cause.  You and I are fortunate to work with so many wonderful people. 

See you in the morning,

Mary Dayne

Vafa and his small but energetic CREATeS staff have evolved into a successful "proposal factory" in a very short time.  As a result of their work, over the past 13 ½ months USM has received $14.6 million in external funds as a result of grant applications developed, facilitated and improved.

For more information, contact vafa.kamali@usm.edu.

I think Daddy Cook would have been pleased.

University Climate Commitment Council

The University Climate Commitment Council met on August 27, 2009 to continue discussing climate action planning.  At this meeting, the UC3 agreed for the Office of Sustainability to take a unilateral approach to developing the Climate Action Plan (CAP) as opposed to writing the plan through subcommittees.  The Office of Sustainability will consult with the various subject matter experts on campus as needed as it develops and writes the plan.  The UC3 agreed that this approach was the most pragmatic given the time constraints of when the plan has to be completed.

The Climate Action Plan will develop, in order, the areas listed below:

1.      Environmentally responsible purchasing policy.

2.      Curriculum development.

3.      Transportation plan.

4.      Energy (in conjunction with energy partner) plan to include demand, modes of supply, technology development, and emissions projections.

By addressing the four (4) topics above, the Climate Action Plan can then address (as required) strategies to reduce, mitigate, and offset carbon emissions with a goal of climate neutrality by 2050.

Once the plan is written, it will be submitted for UC3 for review and feedback.  Once approved by the UC3, it will be submitted to Cabinet for review and feedback.