USM admins step down from positions

The University of Southern Mississippi has endured major staff changes in the past two months.

Most recently, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Russ Willis announced that he will be leaving his position to enter a role with the University Foundation.

Willis issued a statement to all faculty and staff members Monday afternoon explaining his reasoning.

"I made this decision only after careful consideration over an extended period of time," Willis said. "I have come to the conclusion that the vice president's role would be better served at this time by a person who could see a large number of exciting but complex building projects to fruition."

Chris Driskell, Executive Assistant to the President for External Affairs, will replace Willis in an interim position effective Feb. 1.

In a separate employment issue, three Southern Miss employees resigned from their positions in the wake of the tablet scandal that occured in November.

In August, 700 students from organizations such as Honors College, Southern Style, SGA and the McNair Scholarship were given Samsung Galaxy Tabs. The students were told they could keep the tablets, but state law forbids giving items paid for with state money as "gifts." The students were asked to bring the tablets back for inventory, and they must return them upon graduation.

Three university employees left their positions in relation to the incident. Bob Lyman resigned from his position as provost, and Director of Procurement Mike Herndon and Chief Information Officer Homer Coffman were placed on administrative leave.

According to University President Martha Saunders, two of those employees have officially resigned and are no longer on paid administrative leave, and Lyman remains a faculty member as a psychology professor.

Homer Coffman has been replaced by interim CIO David Sliman. Sliman has been a member of the Southern Miss technical staff since 1997. Prior to working at USM, Sliman worked for the Stennis Space Center.

Bob Lyman has been replaced by interim provost Denis Wiesenburg. Before locating to Southern Miss, Wiesenburg served as dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Currently, Mike Herndon's position as Director of Procurement remains vacant, according to the office of Procurement Services.

The State Auditor issued a deadline last month that stated all tablets must be properly tagged as state property. Otherwise, Southern Miss would pay for each missing tablet.

President Saunders confirmed via email that all 700 tablets are accounted for and tagged. She also said Southern Miss will do everything in its power to avoid similar situations in the future.

"We continue to look for ways to strengthen oversight," Saunders said. "Recognizing that sometimes, mistakes do happen, we are more diligent than ever in our effort to be good stewards of the state's property."