UW-Whitewater chancellor to return to Mississippi

Friday, April 6, 2007 10:14 PM CDT

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Martha Dunagin Saunders, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has been named president of the University of Southern Mississippi.

Saunders will take over May 21, a day after current president Shelby Thames steps down. She will be the ninth president and the first woman in the job since the school's founding in 1910.

“It is with great honor and pleasure I announce the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning has unanimously voted to name Dr. Saunders the ninth president of the University of Southern Mississippi,” said Robin Robinson of the State College Board in making the announcement Thursday.

Saunders met with students and officials at Southern Miss shortly before the College Board hired her.

Saunders, 59, grew up in Hattiesburg. She was announced last week as the College Board's preferred candidate. The school has campuses in Hattiesburg and on the Gulf Coast with a combined enrollment of nearly 16,000.

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“Students at the newspaper in University of Wisconsin-Whitewater are heartbroken that you are leaving,” said Vince Fabra, USM's new Student Government Association president. “Not to sound cruel-hearted, but their sorrow kind of excites us here.”

Saunders said she will be accessible to student organizations and transparent in her actions.

“One of the more positive changes in college administrations is that people didn't even know who the president was or they never saw the president,” she said. “That has changed a lot and I try to be at important events.”

Saunders succeeds Thames, 70, who has served for five years. Thames will return to teaching.

Earlier Thursday in a speech to members of the USM Foundation, Saunders said building a consensus on campus and in the community is the best way to raise money for a major university.

“An area we sometimes forget is to make sure we have good campus buy-in,” Saunders said. “If we don't believe ourselves, how can we ask others to support us?”