2008 Woodie Awards
SRU is worse off with cuts
Issue date: 2/3/06 Section: Rocket Letters
To the Editor:
Today is payday at Slippery Rock. President Smith will leave his newly renovated mansion at a cost of $650,000 and drive the half block to Old Main to collect his bi-weekly paycheck of $6,884. He will stop at the plushy appointed mahogany paneled conference room and sit at the $19,000 table for a teleconference with Chancellor Hample on the $8,000 wide screen plasma TV. She will be in a great mood because she just picked up her bi-weekly paycheck of $12,115. "Good job with the athletic program cuts." She will tell him, "Now with only 15 sports you are almost at the average of the other schools in division II and you know how we love that cookie cutter uniformity."
Smith will tell her that much progress is being made on the new $110 million student housing project and how much money the university foundation will make from their ownership of the complex. "Don't forget we are also building a new student union for $22 million and all of that will come from student fees."
He will drive one his two, fully equipped, state-supplied SUVs through Cranberry to the Regional Learning Alliance Building to see if any customers are using the $18 million facility.
Meanwhile, a student athlete collects his two-week, minimum wage paycheck. For 20 hours of work and before deductions he nets $101, only $12,014 less than the chancellor. He really doesn't have much motivation because the wrestling program was just cut and his future is uncertain. He has been wrestling since grade school and loves the sport but the university administration has made an economic decision based on an objective study and passed by a duly appointed committee of faculty, staff and students. His mom and dad are coming for the last match on Feb. 16 and he wonders if this is the end of his athletic career.
Some say that the financial crisis that motivated the cuts in the athletic department was artificial, and I tend to agree. As a former advisor to Student Government and long time faculty representative to the SGA Co-op Board of Directors, I have observed consistent administration pressure to drop certain sports. Several years ago they used Title IX as the hammer but student leaders saw through that ploy. Their new tactic was to hire an expensive outside consultant to "study" the situation and give an objective evaluation to the athletic committee. The problem with the process is that the committee didn't have all the facts. If the administration wants a truly objective decision, then let's put everything on the table. Maybe the president could get along with only one SUV. Maybe the students should have been given the choice not to do anything with the Union and use the savings to fund even more sports teams.
The administration professes to desire to make Slippery Rock a premier residential university. On a weekend last semester the field house was packed with wrestlers and fans for the open meet. Women's field hockey always has a gang of cheering supporters. Some of my most interesting students came to the Rock for water polo. Now those extra curricular activities are permanently flushed and our century-long tradition of athletic opportunity is irrevocably diminished. I suppose the administration expects students to spend the weekend in their fancy new dorm rooms playing video games. Here is an option for the president. Let me sit down with all the budget information at that $19,000, conference table and I guarantee I'll find the $ 350,000 to save our sports teams.
Dick Wukich
Professor of Art
SRU
Today is payday at Slippery Rock. President Smith will leave his newly renovated mansion at a cost of $650,000 and drive the half block to Old Main to collect his bi-weekly paycheck of $6,884. He will stop at the plushy appointed mahogany paneled conference room and sit at the $19,000 table for a teleconference with Chancellor Hample on the $8,000 wide screen plasma TV. She will be in a great mood because she just picked up her bi-weekly paycheck of $12,115. "Good job with the athletic program cuts." She will tell him, "Now with only 15 sports you are almost at the average of the other schools in division II and you know how we love that cookie cutter uniformity."
Smith will tell her that much progress is being made on the new $110 million student housing project and how much money the university foundation will make from their ownership of the complex. "Don't forget we are also building a new student union for $22 million and all of that will come from student fees."
He will drive one his two, fully equipped, state-supplied SUVs through Cranberry to the Regional Learning Alliance Building to see if any customers are using the $18 million facility.
Meanwhile, a student athlete collects his two-week, minimum wage paycheck. For 20 hours of work and before deductions he nets $101, only $12,014 less than the chancellor. He really doesn't have much motivation because the wrestling program was just cut and his future is uncertain. He has been wrestling since grade school and loves the sport but the university administration has made an economic decision based on an objective study and passed by a duly appointed committee of faculty, staff and students. His mom and dad are coming for the last match on Feb. 16 and he wonders if this is the end of his athletic career.
Some say that the financial crisis that motivated the cuts in the athletic department was artificial, and I tend to agree. As a former advisor to Student Government and long time faculty representative to the SGA Co-op Board of Directors, I have observed consistent administration pressure to drop certain sports. Several years ago they used Title IX as the hammer but student leaders saw through that ploy. Their new tactic was to hire an expensive outside consultant to "study" the situation and give an objective evaluation to the athletic committee. The problem with the process is that the committee didn't have all the facts. If the administration wants a truly objective decision, then let's put everything on the table. Maybe the president could get along with only one SUV. Maybe the students should have been given the choice not to do anything with the Union and use the savings to fund even more sports teams.
The administration professes to desire to make Slippery Rock a premier residential university. On a weekend last semester the field house was packed with wrestlers and fans for the open meet. Women's field hockey always has a gang of cheering supporters. Some of my most interesting students came to the Rock for water polo. Now those extra curricular activities are permanently flushed and our century-long tradition of athletic opportunity is irrevocably diminished. I suppose the administration expects students to spend the weekend in their fancy new dorm rooms playing video games. Here is an option for the president. Let me sit down with all the budget information at that $19,000, conference table and I guarantee I'll find the $ 350,000 to save our sports teams.
Dick Wukich
Professor of Art
SRU
