HATTIESBURG - Aubrey Lucas says he still isn't sure of all the circumstances that led to Horace Fleming's sudden departure last month as president of the University of Southern Mississippi.
But as Lucas prepares to take over as interim president Sept. 1, he is very certain of USM's greatest challenge.
"Everybody I talk to talks about the need for additional funds, whether it's in the arts or athletics or academic programs or student affairs," the popular, former USM president said in an interview with the Associated Press last week.
"All over campus, we really are strapped for money," Lucas said.
Sitting in his office on the third floor of the William D. McCain Library and Archives, Lucas spoke of his plans to pitch the school's needs to state legislators and private donors and to foster some "healing" related to Fleming's exit.
At a state College Board meeting in Jackson last month, Fleming decided to leave the university when the board offered him a limited, one-year contract extension instead of a standard four-year deal.
Fleming, who become president in 1997, had come under fire from some alumni who complained he hadn't spent enough money on athletic programs, and from faculty who criticized his handling of budget cuts at USM.
He also had widespread support. In early July, as word got out that Fleming might be in trouble with the College Board, the USM Faculty Senate, the Staff Council, student groups and the university's foundation all passed resolutions urging the board to extend his contract for four more years.
"I'm trying to piece it together and it's difficult," Lucas said. "As I told one person, it seems that our board and our president lost confidence in each other.
"But that's a two-way street. The president has to have confidence in the board, and I think President Fleming must not have had confidence, otherwise he would have taken the one-year contract.
"I think they have a lot of respect for each other, but it wasn't to the degree that they could keep walking together in this venture."
Fleming declined a request for an interview. USM spokesman Bud Kirkpatrick said Fleming would meet with reporters in the next couple of weeks to discuss the matter.
"He's just not ready to do that yet," Kirkpatrick said.
Of Fleming, Lucas said the outgoing president is "beloved."
"People like him," Lucas said. "I like him very much. He's been absolutely hospitable and thoughtful of me."
The College Board will conduct a national search for a new president, a process it expects to take six to 10 months. In the interim, Lucas will serve as president, a role he knows well.
The bespectacled, bow tie-wearing administrator served as USM's sixth president for 21 years before retiring Dec. 31, 1996, and becoming president emeritus.
His tenure was the longest in school history, and he has made it clear that he's not interested in returning as USM's permanent leader.
Eric Van Hoven, a fifth-year senior from New Orleans, said he hopes the next president is easier to approach than Fleming.
Van Hoven credited Fleming with several high-tech advancements on campus, but he said the president could have been more visible among the school's 14,500 students, who start classes today.
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