Five months ago, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit and Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding spoke at one of Student Senate’s meetings about the necessity of the proposed tuition hike, a hike that would raise tuition by the maximum amount allowed by the state.
The provost repeatedly mentioned during her lecture that the university was at a breaking point, that if the university did not raise tuition by the maximum possible amount, it would not be able to retain the services that many students consider most valuable to them.
We quote, “… if there is no tuition increase, the utilities cut would be equal to closing Alden, Grover and Baker so that we can make the kind of cut to make up the $1.5 million.”
Now we have been told that some of the provost’s comments at the meeting were not meant to be taken literally, but we want to know which comments. When were we supposed to listen to what the provost was saying, and when were we supposed to disregard her?
Moreover, we ask why a university at the breaking point must give raises to its top 10 administrators equal to one-third of the supposed cut that would have had to have been made had tuition not been increased? Why must a university that is on the proverbial fiscal cliff invest in a $2.6 billion face-lift while it accumulates more debt, much of which may be paid off by even more tuition increases?
Indeed, the provost was correct: We are at a breaking point. If members of the administration, the stewards of this university and its students do not begin to treat students with the respect that they deserve; if the administration does not begin to make comments to the students that are meant to be taken “literally”; and if students do not realize that they do have power in the direction of the university and its most important decisions, then we as a university are indeed at a breaking point.
The comments the provost made last year, which were nothing short of manipulation, indicate that we are very close to this breaking point, and as students, we will not stand to be manipulated, billed and disregarded any longer.
Zach George, Amrit Saini and Evan Ecos are Ohio University Student Senate president, vice president and treasurer.
