the university of southern mississippi (usm) is a public research university in the united states. its with its main campus is in hattiesburg, mississippi. the hattiesburg campus is about north of gulfport, mississippi and northeast of new orleans, louisiana. it has another campuses at long beach. that campus is called gulf park. in addition, usm has five more teaching and research sites. usm is accredited by the commission on colleges of the southern association of colleges and schools (sacs) to award baccalaureate, master's, specialist, and doctoral degrees.