Cantor’s financial cuts necessary for university
Chancellor Nancy Cantor announced her financial plans for the university Wednesday in front of the University Senate. The plan focused on large campus issues, like campus salaries, financial aid and tuition increases. Most notably, the plan will increase tuition and room and board by 4.5 percent, the lowest percentage increase in 43 years. The plan also calls for a salary freeze on all employees making $50,000 or more.
The plan Cantor put forward seems responsible given the current economic climate. The plan has rightly prioritized its academic mission and student financial issues in dealing with its tightening finances. The plan also attends to the overall well being of the university by making an $8 million cut from its administrative operating budget this year and $12 million next year.
The decision to freeze employee salaries over $50,000 must have been a difficult one, and it will likely be met with skepticism and resentment from faculty and staff. But the alternative – firings – are worse. The university has an obligation to its employees as a caring academic institution. It does not have to employ ruthless tactics like firings that can create a fearful corporate atmosphere not fit for a university.
Due to the personal ways these economic cuts impact individuals, the administration should make a concerted effort to be transparent with employees and open extra lines of communication with them. So, if firings ever were necessary, employees wouldn’t be caught off guard and wouldn’t be fearful of another cutback to come.
But the test of this financial vision is in the days ahead. The administration must do more than freeze salaries and increase financial aid. They have to demonstrate commitments to students and academics with actions and policies beyond the scope of this budget proposal.
Its time for action. Things like building and hiring choices as well as treatment of student body programs must be handled with the same priorities the administration has laid out in this fiscal plan. If the administration lives up to these recent promises, it will ensure that SU weathers these difficult times in the best way possible.
