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EDITORIAL: Skimping on what we have, building on what we don’t

By Editorial Board on August 31, 2011 10:00 am in Editorial / 20 comments

 

The saying goes that one in the hand is worth two in the bush.

In Central Michigan University’s case, its resources on hand may be old, creaky and smell of sweatsocks and moldy apples.

Brooks and Anspach halls, we’re looking at you.

However, CMU is still pursuing two in the bush — the nearly complete College of Medicine extension to the Health Professions building and the biosciences building.

Another saying goes — once bitten, twice shy.

The university must have remarkable pain tolerance to keep soldiering through the double sting of potentially cut funding for the biosciences building and CMED donations that refuse to materialize.

Without donations coming in to CMED, the development of the project continues to come out of tuition money — students paying not for their education, but the education of future students.

Students are paying inflated tuition rates while going to class in subpar facilities, and that’s only when the buildings are not flooded.

University President George Ross has made great use of the state’s economy in his explanations of why tuition rates continue to rise and wages continue to flatline.

It’s a fair point, but a man so attuned to money matters in Michigan should accept that now is not a time to expand, but rather consolidate, in expenses from both employees and facilities.

It seems we have something to teach Ross. After all, students are accustomed to bitter disappointment from Michigan, no matter how much its politicians claim to value education.

The quick deaths of the Michigan Promise Scholarship and Michigan Merit Award in 2009, which would have provided thousands of dollars toward post-secondary education for students who excelled on standardized tests, are early examples of legislators speaking out of both sides of their mouths to this generation of scholars.

So why expect the state or donors suffering under a depressed economy to rescue our ill-advised new projects, while some of our most used buildings sink further into decrepitude?

As another saying goes, hope in one hand and excrete in the other, and see which fills up first.

 

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  • Zeno

    Also, students sweating due to the humidity in Asnpach should know something.  A new heating/cooling system was supposed to be installed over the summer.  But Ross and the Board shifted the funding for the project to “another project on campus.”  Gee, I wonder what that project could be?

  • Michmediaperson

    Where exactly is CMU going to get donations?  This editorial sums up the financial condition of this university.  Great editorial!

    When alumni read in the statewide media that faculty making between $74,000 and $200,000 are going on strike for more money and the best healthcare and getting it almost for free while the private sector is paying a bundle for lesser healthcare, do you really think anyone in their right mind will write a check to CMU???

    This university is so out of its cost structure, it’s not even funny.

    CM LIFE, in its second to the last paragraph, sums up in one sentence the problem with CMU.  How George Ross and his staff, along with the Board of Trustees don’t realize this and immediately solve the problem is beyond me.  The editorial board at CM LIFE understands it better than the six-figure paid administration.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Robertson/603689113 John Robertson

    Anspach was supposed to get a new cooling system?  How about any cooling system at all for Powers Hall – where CMU spent thousands to fancy-up the second-floor ballroom as a PR platform, but students and professors have to endure classrooms with NO air-conditioning.  I taught a class there yesterday between 3:30 and 6:15.  My students were wonderfully patient, but by 5 PM I was dripping and some of them, despite their best intentions, were drifting as they sat in steam-room conditions.  There was no way I was going to make them – and myself – slog on until the 6:15 end-time; the result? = valuable class time lost. And yesterday was a relatively cool day.  Tomorrow’s high – 88; Friday – in the 90s.  We’re constantly told that Powers Hall – the home of the Honors Program, the Leadership Institute, and one of CMU’s few (and supposedly valued) PhD programs – is “on the list” for improvements. . .  . Uh, huh.

  • Lawcodename

    From where have you pulled these salary figures? When I’ve looked at faculty salaries (as they are a matter of public record), most are not making these amounts. I know full professors who make far less than $70K!

  • puddle teacher

    Brooks Hall’s largest and most used classroom on the third floor holds classes of up to ~ 70 students and has back-to-back classes scheduled in it all day and evening from Monday through Thursday.  It also has a large puddle in it whenever it rains.  This roof leaking has been affecting this classroom for years.  The facilities people try to fix it, but they do not seem to be given the resources needed to do the job right.  

    I applaud the editors for bringing these issues to the attention of the administration.  Students must realize that their increasing tuition expenses are not being used to improve their education.

  • anonymous

    everytime i see a comment from you, i know i have to brace myself for the stupidity that lie ahead.

  • Michmediaperson

    CM LIFE, this past April, 2011.  They did a story.  Then, they provided a link to the salary figures.  Perhaps, the editor may want to re-run the story and re-run how to get to the link.

    Prime, I’m going what CM LIFE is saying.

  • Michmediaperson

    Our soldiers are sweating and fighting Al Quesda and other American haters in much, much hotter temperatures.  I’m sure the faculty and students can survive.

    How did CMU survive back in the 1910′s, 1920′s??????

    Besides, by not running the air conditioning and keeping the windows open will keep faculty supporter Algore and the environmental wackos happy.  Just think how CMU is not contributing to Global Warming, the Carbon footprint and all that nonsense unions, liberals and Democrats like to preach about.  I say George should keep the air off and make Algore and Barack Hussein Obama happy!

  • Evil Incarnate

    The administration has yet to admit that all this controversy is over the med school

  • Carlos

    Put “their”?  Denis, do you mean “put there”?  I think an ungodly number of
    them are Engler holdovers.

  • Zeno

    Well said Evil Incarnate!  Can someone at CM Life PLEASE INVESTIGATE THE MEDICAL SCHOOL?  WMU’s President gave a very transparent and illuminating interview over the summer.  In it, he said that a medical school will cost $200-300 million dollars and will require a good deal of what’s called “hard funding” (i.e. funding from the state or from donations).  Instead of just re-typing CMU press releases do some investigating.  FOLLOW THE MONEY!!

  • Zeno

    Well said Evil Incarnate!  Can someone at CM Life PLEASE INVESTIGATE THE MEDICAL SCHOOL?  WMU’s President gave a very transparent and illuminating interview over the summer.  In it, he said that a medical school will cost $200-300 million dollars and will require a good deal of what’s called “hard funding” (i.e. funding from the state or from donations).  Instead of just re-typing CMU press releases do some investigating.  FOLLOW THE MONEY!!

  • Zeno

    First off, CMU did not pack 60 students into a small class in 1920.  The classes were much, much smaller.  

    Second, the semester started later back then.

    Third, Anspach, at least, was not built back then.  Typically the rooms were larger and had higher ceilings to improve air flow back in the 1920s.  

    Fourth…oh why bother.  Let’s just do what Michmediaperson wants and close down CMU.  Minimum wage jobs for all (oh wait that’s not right…that’s a gov reg).  Below minimum wage jobs for all!!!

    ugh

  • Zeno

    First off, CMU did not pack 60 students into a small class in 1920.  The classes were much, much smaller.  

    Second, the semester started later back then.

    Third, Anspach, at least, was not built back then.  Typically the rooms were larger and had higher ceilings to improve air flow back in the 1920s.  

    Fourth…oh why bother.  Let’s just do what Michmediaperson wants and close down CMU.  Minimum wage jobs for all (oh wait that’s not right…that’s a gov reg).  Below minimum wage jobs for all!!!

    ugh

  • Is Glenn Beck A Terrorist?

    “Where exactly is CMU going to get donations?”

    The same place from which you pull your ideas and posts: your ass. The rift that keeps on giving.

  • The Grey Area

    It must have taken a lot of restraint not to use the words “liberal” “Democrat” “union” and “socialist” in a post there, Michy. How’s the heart rate?

  • Anonymous

    No

    He probably means greedy fatcats that want prestige and self indulgence
    (AKA screwing over students and faculty)

  • MichMediaPerson

    Wasn’t the current board of directors recently appointed by Snyder?

  • MP Citizen

    Here’s a link to faculty salaries from the CMU FACTBOOK
    I don’t see anyone making $200K here, but I’m guessing that number is an attempt to include the value of fringe benefits as well.

    http://www.cmich.edu/Factbook/Faculty_and_Staff/Faculty_Profile.htm

  • MP Citizen

    Here’s a link to faculty salaries from the CMU FACTBOOK
    I don’t see anyone making $200K here, but I’m guessing that number is an attempt to include the value of fringe benefits as well.

    http://www.cmich.edu/Factbook/Faculty_and_Staff/Faculty_Profile.htm