The University has a pressing issue that threatens to further alienate students from the faculty.
The rumors have been swirling since the beginning of the semester as to whether or not a charge on students for printing was to be implemented and it seems as if it is now inevitable.
But right now, students have a chance to stand up and tell the administrators ‘No, I will not be exploited anymore!’
During the presentation to Undergraduate Student Government (USG), the group proposing the charges estimated a savings of $1.5 million. This figure might seem high but we are also forgetting a few things.
To use this new system, it is only going to create more of a hassle than it is worth. The training for the staff alone to implement the system, the software to pull it off, and the extra time it would require each time you needed to print something would just slow things down to a slower crawl than it already is.
If the University is that desperate to save money, we can start at the top to find ways to trim the fat.
According to both public record and an AP article published in the Toledo Free Press, President Carol Cartwright is the sixth highest paid president of an Ohio Public University with a staggering salary of $375,000. This is $40,000 a year more than Miami’s president and $20,000 more than Akron’s.
This wouldn’t be so bad, except that when the University is claiming they are trying to save money by charging us to print, they are giving our illustrious leader a raise. Just for having the interim tag removed from her title last year, Cartwright received a raise of $60,000.
Want another way to trim the economic fat instead of passing the bill to students?
The University owns a house about ten minutes or so from campus that they paid about $750,000 for about 5 years ago. Would anybody really be surprised to learn that Cartwright is the occupant of said house?
Now, this is by no means an attack on the president. I am simply trying to point out other alternatives to save money as opposed to charging students.
I don’t know about anybody else, but it feels as if this is just another way the school is trying to exploit us and unless we do something about it, we are just going to face further repression.
I attended a school prior to the University that charged for printing. About a quarter of the way into the semester, I ran out of ‘free prints’ and was required to pay for printing the rest of the way. I ended up going to Staples the rest of the semester just because they were cheaper.
Yes, shameless plug since I work there – but the fact of the matter is, this will only further divide the administration from the students. Unless the administration is willing to stand up and make the tough choices without hurting the students, we will both be losers in the end.
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