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High Education Commissioner Hank Bounds confirmed Friday that state College Board's internal audit office is examining the University of Southern Mississippi athletic budget, reported to be facing a deficit in excess of $1 million.

"We are looking at the financial status of the athletic department," he said.

Bounds said that Saunders informed him of the budget deficit last week. That information coupled with interim athletic director Jeff Hammond's comments in the Hattiesburg American about financial mismanagement compelled the board to act, he said.

"When that happens, you don't have any choice but to make sure that every dollar is accounted for," he said.

His comment came in response to a statement made by Southern Miss Faculty Senate President Tim Rehner at the monthly faculty senate meeting that Bounds informed him earlier this week of the audit of the athletic budget's finances and contracts.

The athletic budget has gained scrutiny in light of last week's sudden resignation of President Martha Saunders, as rumors have swirled that she was pushed out the door.

Underlying these rumors are real concerns about the university's current state.

The loss of university direction is one. A sense of powerlessness that unknown forces could bring Saunders down is another.

Theater professor Stephen Judd encapsulated both during a brief speech before the senate body.

"It's appalling to me that the faculty clearly had nothing to do with this," said Judd, a former faculty senate president. "This came from somewhere else, and my question is what is the primary mission of this university? Is it what we do - teach and research? Did anyone ask the question, when these decisions were being made, about how not only would it affect us as faculty members, but how what we do affects students?

Judd put Saunders' tenure in context of the stunted strategic planning of previous presidents Horace Fleming and Shelby Thames, who had similarly brief tenures.

"Just as we're beginning to kind of recover and start to put the (strategic) plan into effect, now suddenly she's gone," he said. "And now we face another two years, I mean I'm sorry, we are not going to move forward very far in the next couple of years without a president and without some sense of direction."