[Vision2020] Seriously: U of I Presidency

[lfalen]

Saundra
I think that you are right on both Dirk and pay cuts.Cuts and layoffs should start with administrators.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Saundra Lund" sslund_2007 at verizon.net
Date: Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:10:46 -0700
To: nickgier at roadrunner.com,  vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Seriously: U of I Presidency

> Nick wrote:
> "The most recent scuttlebutt is that "The Dirk," AKA a former Idaho senator, will be made the new UI president."
> 
> Please tell me that's nothing more than a late April Fool's joke, Nick!!!
> 
> Certainly, Kempthorne's extremely poor yet very expensive choices -- complete with pricey monogrammed linens  -- for a required bathroom remodel that cost taxpayers over a quarter of a MILLION dollars would rule him out.  We simply cannot afford his champagne tastes, and it would be the height of poor judgment and incompetence, IMHO, to bring someone with his baggage to a financially beleaguered university where everyone is facing 5% pay cuts to -- hopefully -- avoid layoffs.
> 
> As long as we're talking about the UI, does anyone know how much this most recent search has cost???  It seems to me that we've spent a heck of a lot of money trying to recruit great people to fill the position over & over again, and we've never yet gotten what we paid for.  There's always the promise that this person or that will be able to "handle" the legislature so that higher education will get what it deserves, but it never happens.  It seems to me the huge sums spent recruiting would be better spent on the actual running of the university with a much lesser amount spent to recruit more locally.  I'm personally convinced that such a strategy would serve the UI *at least* as well as the poor sods we've gotten from the previous high dollar searches, particularly with the help of all the "high caliber" -- and high cost -- administrative bloat the UI has acquired over the previous several years!
> 
> I'll weigh in on the pending pay cuts as well:  I think the pay cuts should have been graduated so that those making the most money take the biggest cuts to at least partially if not completely spare those who who are at or below the poverty level.  As Representative Trail reminded us recently, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of UI employees are at or below the poverty level, which is shameful to begin with, but to cut their pay by 5% is just plain disgusting.
> 
> Finally . . . when the HECK are we going to have Spring?!  I had no fun shoveling out back this morning, but I'm hoping the kids are enjoying the snow, which at 7 AM was the perfect kind for making snowballs  :-)
> 
> 
> Saundra Lund
> Moscow, ID
> 
> The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
> ~ Edmund Burke
> 
> ***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2009 through life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the author.*****
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of nickgier at roadrunner.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 9:02 AM
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com; roger hayes; bear at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Seriously: U of I Presidency
> 
> Hi Bear,
> 
> The most recent scuttlebutt is that "The Dirk," AKA a former Idaho senator, will be made the new UI president. Presumably without proper vetting or consultation with any faculty or staff. 
> 
> A Board of Education member was once reminded about the long tradition of faculty governance and the UI constitutional provision that the "immediate government" of the university was in the hands of the faculty.  His response was: "That's odd. I thought we the ones that did that!" And yes, they the power to do just that.
> 
> The motto of our faculty union is "Education for Democracy; Democracy in Education."  We are currently in a losing battle for the second half of that motto.
> 
> Nick 
> 
> 
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