Back in April, a 10-member faculty committee at Mississippi Valley State University called for the dismissal of its president, saying in a sharply worded report that a “serious void in leadership exists at MVSU.” The move followed a no-confidence vote by faculty members.
Six weeks later, the president, Lester C. Newman, is still at the helm, but two of the 10 professors have lost their jobs. Vickie Curry and Orian Cathey, both nontenured faculty members, have been dismissed, according to The Clarion-Ledger, a local newspaper.
University officials maintained that the pair had been let go because they had not completed their terminal degrees within five years. “It has nothing to do with their serving on the committee,” a spokeswoman told the newspaper. —Scott Smallwood
