It was the first week of school, and Ohio University was already facing protests and picket lines. It's nice to know that some things never change.
To balance the budget for the 2007-08 school year, OU is laying off 24 employees, primarily custodial workers. Times are tough, but of all the things to trim, the administration picked the people who cut the grass and mop the floors?
One of the things that OU prides itself on is the beauty of its campus. Even though there are thousands of college students roaming over the grounds and in the classrooms, OU really is a lovely place. A clean one too, which is even harder to achieve.
Let's be honest, it's not because OU students are cleaner and more conscientious than other college students. It's the folks who pull midnight shifts to wash Bentley Hall's bathrooms who keep things tidy.
That's not an easy task either. Cleaning the whole of Baker University Center is the responsibility of only one or two employees, according to an article in Friday's Post. With the number of people walking through the student center every day, that place has got to be a behemoth of filth.
Already, the custodial staff is cutting back their cleaning schedules to accommodate the layoffs, according to the article. Union leader Dave Logan was quoted as saying that this is going to result in health and safety issues because of issues like reduced garbage pickup.
Now, it's not likely that OU is going to be facing disease epidemics just because office trash is going to be picked up only twice a week. Nor is the campus going to be knee-deep in trash anytime soon, regardless of what doomsday scenarios union leaders are predicting.
But the layoffs are going to hurt one of OU's best features. The administration should realize that and be looking for ways to manage the budget in such a way as to rehire the workers for next year.
President McDavis and other administrators showed us the meaning of school spirit when they showed up to help freshmen move into their dorms. They lugged boxes and climbed stairs just like all the rest of us poor saps.
Maybe a repeat performance is in order, with some high-ranking administrators banding together to cover the laid-off custodial workers' shifts. Something like that would help bridge the gap between us ordinary peons and the folks from the ivory tower of Cutler Hall. And just think of how great the photo op would be.
It would be easy to paint the high-ranking administrators as villains out to screw the common man, the sort who twirl their moustaches as they tie unsuspecting freshmen to railroad tracks. They're really not. Most of them don't have facial hair at all.
They were facing a tough budget crunch and chose to eliminate custodial workers instead of making further cuts to the school's academic programs. Was it the right decision? Probably not. But it wasn't a malicious choice.
Unfortunately, the rest of the OU community doesn't see it that way. Over the past few years, administrators have managed to alienate just about all of its constituent groups. Now the custodial workers are out for vengeance, and you don't want those people angry at you.
With the new year only a few weeks old, administrators should do their best to convince the university community that they do have OU's best interests at heart. Avoiding more layoffs would be a good first step.
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Catie Coleman
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