Today we see the once dubbed “great unifier” has predictably discarded that manufactured image. Obama has reverted to the manipulative and divisive politics of class warfare, blame-shifting and shameless distortions.

Sal Lewinsky would be proud. During the first half of his reign, Obama’s Democrat party owned a super majority in both houses of Congress. With the GOP on the sidelines, the keys to the kingdom were his. Subsequently the president now finds he cannot run on his rancid record of crony capitalism, deceptive Obamacare or squandered stimulus packages.

Keep in mind, it’s not Gingrich, Santorum or Romney responsible for $5 trillion in new debt these last three years, or the worst housing market in United States history, coupled with “unofficial” unemployment soaring to 17 percent (CBO estimates).

Neither is the rejection of the Canadian Keystone pipeline with its’ ensuing 20,000 new jobs.

It is Barack Obama.

His entire presidency centers around the distorted ideology that only continued governmental intrusion into the private sector coupled with a citizenry largely dependent upon entitlement programs can create “balance“ and thus a fair, utopian society.

In short, we too can stupidly become Greece and Spain.

Ironically, our wealthy president persistently rails against the alleged unfairness of a prosperous American Capitalist system. However GE (which paid zero taxes last year) was his biggest campaign contributor.

So much for “Republicans for the Rich.” Obama has brazenly proclaimed that “we all gotta have skin in the game.”

So exactly where is Mr. Obama’s sacrifice? Perhaps it lies within his frequent multimillion dollar, taxpayer funded vacations?

Maybe “sacrifice” equates to throwing 171 lavish White House parties (complete with $100 a pound steak) or going on 90 golf outings in 2011? Let them eat cake indeed!

Someone once wrote: “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.”

Wise words lost on Obama.

Bob Golm,
Durand resident, CMU alumnus

Over time this erosion of city streets and freeways causes wear and tear on vehicles that ends up costing drivers a lot of money.

We joke about the orange barrels, but the truth is, we need to invest in fixing our roads, and we need to invest in putting Michigan’s construction workers back on the job. Fixing our crumbling infrastructure will make our state more attractive to new business, and it creates good-paying jobs right here at home.

We need to convince elected officials in Lansing to stop their partisan antics and make this a priority. Actually, some bills are under consideration now there that would more realistically fund road and other infrastructure construction and repair. This is way overdue. We need it ASAP.

James S. Moreno

Mount Pleasant

A place where every student should No. 16: Run from the police, a blatantly illegal act. Where people of all faiths or creeds can No. 95: Get a “Jesus Dog” @ His House on Bellows, while being pressured to follow their faith. Who wouldn’t want to No. 67/68: Make out with a boy/girl from every Fraternity/Sorority, considering the fact that STD rates at CMU are among the highest in the state? Even unpopular suggestions such as No. 69: Sit in a lecture class that you are NOT TAKING, demonstrate that this publication has no respect for the academic integrity of the institution. At least by pointing out the idiocy of some of the suggestions on this list, I can cross off No. 116.

Andrew Brown

Delta College sophomore

1) FACT: Salaries of upper administrators have exploded in the past 10 years. In 2000, the CMU President earned $200,000. In 2010, George Ross earned $350,000, a 75 percent increase (and that doesn’t include the $50,000 bonus he received!). The Provost’s salary is up 63 percent in those 10 years. Over that same time period, faculty have seen their pay increase about 32 percent. Of course, the administrators started with higher salaries in the first place, so in addition to having a larger percentage increase, the difference in actual dollars was huge.

2) FACT: Since 2000, the undergraduate enrollment at CMU has increased 32 percent and tuition has increased 220 percent (not including the increase this fall!). The huge increase in enrollment and in tuition translates into an obscene amount of revenue for CMU. In contrast, the number of tenure track faculty at CMU has increased six percent! Students suffer as the ratio of students to faculty skyrockets.

3) FACT: The faculty at CMU is already paid less than faculty at other MAC schools. In 2009-2010, we ranked between 8th and 10th (depending on faculty rank), out of 13 MAC schools! Salaries for full professors at CMU were over $7,000 lower than the average salary for full professors in the MAC. Our faculty is as good as any in the MAC and we are not being compensated in any way near what our peers are being compensated.

4) FACT: The current unrestricted surplus assets held by CMU is $228,307,60, an increase of 69 percent since 2005. This is money that is not tied up in buildings and facilities and is not earmarked for any specific purpose, and is higher than any other point in the history of CMU. This has led President Ross and the Board of Trustees to state that CMU is “rock solid” financially.

5) FACT: President Ross manipulatively withheld the names of faculty approved for promotion from the Board of Trustees for 2 months. This ensured that the Board would approve these promotions AFTER the collective bargaining agreement between CMU and the faculty expired on June 30th. Why does this matter? The administration is now citing a Michigan law that states raises approved after the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement are not subject to retroactive pay after a new agreement is signed. In other words, as negotiations drag into the fall, every week that goes by is a week that these hard working professors who have ALREADY EARNED THEIR RAISES with past years work, will not be compensated for their earned promotions.

What do these things tell us? They tell me that CMU is doing great financially, and the administration has inflated their salaries on the backs of the faculty and students, while pleading poverty with the faculty. Not only that, but President Ross’s manipulative withholding of promotion information until AFTER the contract had expired tells me something very clearly: This man is no leader for our institution. Is this the way a man of high integrity approaches bargaining with the employees that make up the lifeblood of his university? The answer is clearly “no”. In my 15 years at CMU I have seen bargaining 5 times. Each time, the administration asked for and received give-backs from the faculty. Each time the negotiations were difficult. Never before have I seen such underhanded and immoral tactics from the administration. In the end, CMU students suffer as the administration refuses to bargain a fair contract with their outstanding faculty. If you agree, now is the time to let your voice be heard.

Bryan Gibson, Department of Psychology.

Throughout the past year, I have witnessed some major developments in the advancement of the university that I believe have drawn so many students to campus. The great triumphs of the football team, the groundbreaking of one of Michigan’s exclusive medical schools, and the overall affordability of CMU during this pressing fiscal era have all helped mold the university to fit the form of a larger and more reputable institution of higher learning.

For these reasons, more students made the sound decision to accept their admission than was ever expected. The consciousness of CMU’s desirability that has swelled substantially in recent years should be an indicator to CMU’s administration, faculty, staff, and, of course, its student body as to the direction of this institution and its great potential for advancement.

I believe that maintaining and increasing CMU’s prestige should be a prime focal point in future university decisions in every avenue, from our admissions to our architecture.

More specifically, increasing selectivity so as to attract students of high academic quality and bridging the current achievement gap prevalent among students should be made a priority in line with CMU’s commitment to academic excellence and student success.

Communication between CMU and its student populace is at its zenith, and there are more opinions to consider than ever. Now is the time to focus on the missions, goals, and values of the university as its metamorphosis continues, right alongside the changing seasons.

Colleen McNeely

Brighton sophomore

You have one new friend request! You have been tagged in 3 new photos!

You have received one new death notice!

With the advent of Facebook, we admittedly know just a little too much of other’s information. With status updates like “Just got done with class, now shower then drinks with my favorites!” and “Ugggh, SO hungover today!” or “Going to the game tonight, call me! (Insert phone number here)” It’s no surprise that we know exactly what’s going on with our friends and our “friends.”

However, what happens when you find out about the latest town tragedy from Facebook? When I received the news about a couple recent tragedies of the young lives from my hometown, it wasn’t by a phone call or from a visitor, but rather status updates that relayed such news as “R.I.P, man… Ur gonna be missed dude!!! Good times!” and “rip bud, u were always such a good guy!”

Hold the phone — errr… keyboard?

When is being informal too inappropriate? When is access in excess? Is there a line being crossed?

I am asking because I honestly don’t know what the tactful way to handle this situation would be.

Granted this hasn’t yet been an all too enveloping issue given that the majority of the population of Facebook users isn’t at their natural death age. However, the issue is delicate in this situation.

Just as humans leave their imprint on the Earth in the formation of timeless headstones, social network users will eventually have a virtual tombstone of their own.

Jennifer Wilke

Menominee senior

People in healthy relationships are treated equally to one another. However, this does not always turn out to be the case.

One of the main reasons is due to a lack of healthy relationships to model after these days.

To pave the way for a better future within your relationship, it is best to practice creating forms of equality at the beginning of the relationship and to establish these methods from there on.

If you set the same rules and standards for both people in the relationship, you are taking the right steps toward equality. Ultimately, when both people in the relationship have a say and feel as though their thoughts and opinions are valued, neither person will feel superior to the another. Developing a sense of identity is significant to starting and maintaining a healthy relationship.

In a healthy relationship, you have the right to your own opinion, to talk to others about how you feel, to choose your own friends, to feel safe and to be treated with respect.

However, with your rights comes responsibilities. Being honest about your thoughts, listening and agreeing to disagree will aid in making your relationship healthier.

People in relationships have the authority to make choices on how they will behave. At times, there will be cases of anger and arguments — these feelings are normal. How we act on these feelings will determine whether the relationship is considered healthy or unhealthy.

Working to achieve a healthy relationship requires time and patience. Proving that you have admiration and concern for the other person in the relationship takes practice and will involve getting feedback from your partner.

If you or a friend is involved an unhealthy relationship, there are many options for help. Resources available locally consist of our on-campus student organization SAPA (Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates) and Women’s Aid Service of Isabella County.

For more information on concerns regarding healthy relationships, visit womens-aid.org.

COM 353: Small Group Communication

Never mind the fact that the raise that accompanies Provost Shapiro’s promotion is more than twice my annual salary.

In the 2009-2010 Academic year I taught 8 classes. The 202 students paid $205,434 in tuition. As temporary faculty, I am paid based on the number of credit hours I teach (24 per year) which this year came to less than 12 percent of the total my students paid to take my classes.

That means in each class, the $3051 in tuition paid by three students pays me for my trouble. With 22 students in my smallest class (45 in the largest) that leaves 178 students paying the university itself. I am no MBA, but it looks like the university has a pretty sweet deal here. In the interest of full disclosure, my “total compensation” package, including the cost of benefits, comes close to 23 percent of the tuition which my classes generate. That still leaves a 77 percent rate of return on the university’s investment in me.

Never mind the fact that I have taught here full time for two years, and yet my family still qualifies for both WIC food assistance and Medicaid.

Never mind the fact that unlike Provost Shapiro, my chances of ever becoming anything more than temporary at CMU are essentially zero. After all, why would the dean of any college hire a temp into a tenure – track position if it means they not only would have to pay them more for teaching fewer credit hours, but would also have to hire another temp to replace them?

It is time to acknowledge that the temporary faculty who teach a fairly large proportion of the classes CMU offers are worth far more to the university than the label of “temporary” implies. With the universities across the state tightening their belts, it might be tempting for the administration to see the unionization of temporary faculty here at CMU as little more than an additional financial burden—one to be opposed at all costs.

I only hope that the promotion of Provost Shapiro from his interim position last week might mean that we now have someone in the administration who truly does understand the “tremendous strain” that can accompany a lack of respect, job security, and fair compensation.

Patrick S. McGinnity, MFA

Instructor of Composition

and Creative Writing

Not things that you just had handed to you in the crapshoot of the genetic lottery.

Having pride in something you couldn’t have played a role in deciding isn’t just intellectually dishonest, it’s also a destructive idea since it encourages people to tie up their personal identity with what essentially amounts to trivial cosmetic particularities.

We need to replace diversity with a more constructive and positive notion.

We need notions that recognizes variation in human culture but at the same time does not divide people into groups according to ethnicity and then tell them to be proud of the outcome of what is, in essence, a genetic accident.

Not a colorless world, just one in which color is no longer important.

If we are ever to get down to solving the really difficult questions of our world, we must first recognize and celebrate what brings us all together.

The heroes of humanity may have had different journeys but, at the end of the day, they were first and foremost part of the human family.

The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can create an environment in which pride and honor results from real work and achievement.

It should not come from a random spin of the genetic wheel of fortune.

This is the promise of humanism and it is exactly what this university needs.

Though I am certainly willing to admit that I could be wrong and am open to suggestions.

Nicholas Cavallo
California graduate student

We all recognize the economic and political challenges facing our campus, state and nation.

We hope that President Ross can provide the stable leadership the campus needs in order to chart the immediate and long term future for CMU.

Over its 40-year history representing a diverse faculty of scholars, teachers, artists, coaches, librarians, and counselors, the
Faculty Association has built a foundation of mutual respect and collaboration with the administration.

We are committed to continuing this culture of cooperation so as to ensure a bright future for the students, faculty, and staff at CMU.

We are hopeful that we can build a strong relationship with President Ross and his administration to assist in designing constructive ways to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

So along with the entire campus, the CMU Faculty Association wishes to welcome back President Ross and his family upon their return to the Mount Pleasant community.

Timothy Brannan, President
CMU Faculty Association