As you certainly have heard by now, over winter break the school was forced to take action in response to the financial crisis and lay off 80 staff members. Rather than the usual political column that appears in this space, the College Libertarians, College Republicans, and Progressive Students Alliance have decided to use this space to issue a joint response to these financial actions. As political groups, we also focus on nonpolitical issues, such as this one, that affect everyone on campus. The members of these three groups have a huge range of backgrounds and beliefs; however, many of us agree that these concerns go beyond politics.
The issue here is not the fact that the layoffs happened. It is how they happened and the process that the RPI administration undertook when performing budget cuts. Immediately after students returned from winter break, a large amount of confusion swept over the campus. To address this issue, Vice President for Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles held a question-and-answer session in the McNeil Room last week. Knowles spent a lot of time talking about the financial crisis we’ve found ourselves in and how the school has taken efforts to cut back. Surely we have all noticed that TAs are harder to come by and classes are getting larger.
However, one obvious expense of the school budget that has yet to be reduced is the already controversially large compensation package of our institute’s president. At $1.3 million, this package more than doubles the compensation of the president of the United States. Knowles and other members of the administration cleared up a lot of the ambiguity surrounding the layoffs, but they never specifically addressed why our president is worthy of a compensation that doubles that of our nation’s commander in chief.
Rensselaer ranks at sixth nationally when it comes to presidential salary, but we rank only at 92nd when it comes to endowment. If the presidential compensation were cut back to a meager $1 million, then that could have saved approximately six jobs. Obviously this would not completely solve the problem, but this kind of financial management would send a strong message to those laid off that the Institute truly cares and has done everything possible to keep the layoffs to a minimum.
Knowles stated that the Board of Trustees has refused to lower the president’s compensation. However, at many other universities with similar financial problems, presidents have been known to publicly donate parts of their pay back to the school. Yet, as of now, the compensation packages of the Institute’s president and officers have remained completely unaffected by the financial crisis.
Continuing to offer such large compensation packages at the cost of the quality of the students’ education and the jobs of hardworking staff members while claiming that everything has been done to avoid layoffs is a joke. The students, faculty, staff, and alumni need to send a powerful message to the administration that we will no longer stand for this. We call upon everyone in our campus community to inform themselves about the issues and decide for themselves how to respond.
Editor’s Note: This is a special column granted by the Editorial Board to the College Republicans, the College Libertarians, and the Progressive Students Alliance because the groups wished to present a common front on an issue affecting the Institute.
