COLUMN: Students need to voice their concerns with CMU


Students, it’s time to stand up.

I’ve been surprised this semester with the number of students who have voiced concern, especially about the Faculty Association and Central Michigan University.

This is the first time in my four years at this institution I have felt like students can make a change at the university.

Since all students on campus are expected to contribute to $204,486,263, we should have a voice about what projects CMU spends money on and why it spends its money.

There was a lot of interesting information during Thursday’s board of trustees meeting including the board addressing a nearly $50 million addition to the unrestricted net assets, (which trust me, Central Michigan Life is following up on) and an evaluation of University President George Ross’ job performance since 2010.

“In summary, a strong performance for 2010-11 ending June 30,” said Sarah Opperman, board of trustees chairwoman. “No bonus in keeping with the current financial priorities and consistent with other actions that have been taken throughout the university. Thanks for a very good 2010 and 2011 academic year.”

While his perfomance from the time ending June 30 might have been strong, since then both students and faculty at this university are more alienated than ever.

Students and FA members should feel alienated by what’s going on.

The board of trustees also approved a $1.5 million renovation to the Tower’s Real Food on Campus on Thursday.

Now, I haven’t been to Real Food on Campus in a year or two, but as I recall, it was easily the second-best place to eat at CMU.

It’s angering that the money would be diverted there when it could’ve easily gone to fix North Campus’ Robinson Residential Restaurant.

Here are some more interesting facts: Since the fall of 2000, CMU has raised tuition 231 percent for undergraduates.

During that same time, Michigan State University raised tuition by 167 percent and Wayne State University raised its own between 141 and 184 percent.

While some of that can be attributed to rolling fees into tuition and the CMU Promise (I won’t lie, I’m still paying $304 a credit hour because of that), but for those of you who don’t remember, the latter was an idea by George Ross when he was vice president of Finance and Administrative Services.

Away from tuition, it appears to an outsider’s view that administrators have alienated the FA by not extending a contract when they had the opportunity to in June.

Questions about why that decision was made have yet to be answered, leading me to believe it was intended as a slap in the face.

Yes, I know faculty are still getting paid, but if I was working on a contract and the deadline expired, I would certainly like my employer to say, “It’s OK, let’s figure this out and we’ll sign a continuance agreement,” rather than, “Well you have to work anyway, so why waste my time.”

I’m appalled as a student that this is how things are going.

That’s why today, as a student, I will write an email to three people: University President George Ross (president@cmich.edu), board of trustees Chairwoman Sarah Opperman (opper1sr@cmich.edu) and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (rick.snyder@michigan.gov).

My email will include how fed up I am with the current state of higher education at CMU. Administrators keep building and making additions, but the current buildings are being ignored. Students were in the dark during the FA strike and some went to several classes just to wait for 10 minutes. But what hurts the most to me is the wasteful spending I see from CMU.

If you’re going to complain about a lack of money, at least act like you are trying to be fiscally conservative, instead of adding a Mongolian barbecue for $1.5 million.

I implore other students to send emails addressing their issues. It’s time for students to take a stand for what they feel is right and possibly change the face of CMU.

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