By Kyeland Jackson —
It happens less often than it should, but the university made me proud today.
Faced with the recommendation to funnel 12 million from students via a tuition rates increase, U of L’s board of trustees took the high road and didn’t approve it. The budget will now go back to President James Ramsey and the administration to be re-made.
The work of Ramsey, Chief Financial Officer Harlan Sands and others in the administration should not go unnoticed. The proposed budget did well to attempt offsetting the tuition increase with a “credit to credit” program and increased funding to financial aid. As Ramsey stated in his letter after the proposal failed, the budget represented a lot of hard work by a lot of dedicated employees. That being said, the budget did not represent the students.
The budget included a five percent tuition rate increase, which would have billed full-time students upwards of an extra $1,200 yearly, and a two percent increase to housing rates. It’s almost permissible to increase these rates in the face of funding cuts. U of L anticipates Governor Matt Bevin’s cuts will bleed $12.5 million from the university. Couple that with the nine-year trend of state funding cuts, and the tuition hike becomes even more acceptable. But this should be a university for the students and by the students. That adage is endangered when the costs for students to attend U of L and get an education are haphazardly increased without considering other options.
For instance, the university loaned $38 million to one of the U of L Foundation’s businesses. That money can be recalled at any time for the university to use, but it was not considered. There’s the $9.8 million renovation to the student activity center, the $10 million spent on a contract extension for baseball coach Dan Mcdonnell and the $90 million the university saved from refinancing its debt. Yet Finance Committee Chairman Ron Butt referred to trustee Craig Greenberg’s budget disagreement as “irrational and perhaps incompetent.”
“I see that some of the actions that a few trustees are taking are impeding the university from moving forward,” Butt said after the meeting. “And why are they doing that? I have no idea what they’re motivation is.”
Butt’s inability to realize what motivated Greenberg, Benz and other members’ decisions today is where the problem lies: the administration doesn’t understand the students.
It happens often when layers of governance separate leaders from the front lines: they lose sight of what they’re fighting for. Students this year felt further distanced after Ramsey’s sombrero photo stirred campus outrage, the self-imposed postseason ban left the basketball seniors in the dark and racist incidents at Threlkeld hall hushed the voices of those involved.
It’s as Susan Howarth, the associate vice president for finance and business affairs said during the meeting: the university is moving from a public one to private.
Hard decisions are going to be made in the face of the impending budget cuts, but pumping money from the students is not the answer. I’m proud the board decided to consider students today, and hope they will keep students in mind when the budget comes back for review this month. Otherwise, U of L may as well brand itself as a corporate business in lieu of a educational institution.
