It's all in the numbers

By Staff
December 14, 2003
The director of the Office of Institutional Research at the University of Southern Mississippi has lost her job after an internal audit discovered human error'' led to discrepancies in the school's preliminary fall enrollment figures. But she's not going far.
Susan Siltanen, a former associate dean of the university's graduate school, will join the USM faculty. Her current salary of $86,708 will be reduced to $70,688, the university said.
This bit of fuzzy math comes at a time when some USM faculty members are suggesting that USM might have inflated its enrollment numbers by just enough to move ahead of the university that has traditionally been the state's largest, Mississippi State University. Critics, and there are many, say the move may have been designed to make the current USM administration look more successful.
The state College Board is taking another look at the enrollment figures this week. If the figures change too much, it won't look good for USM President Shelby Thames and people may begin to wonder just what kind of math they're teaching these days.