The story of this semester at our University has not been the first title since 1992 for our football team.
It should have been, but it has not.
No, the story of the school year so far has been the elimination of at least 30 faculty positions. I have read much of the coverage but I am ashamed that I have been mute on the topic so far.
Around this time three years ago, I was invited to three luncheons at Firelands to meet the candidates for President of the University.
It was one of the perks of being vice president of the student body and I was honored to be there. Out of the three candidates, I was most impressed with Mary Ellen Mazey.
I was thrilled my pick for the job actually got it. I believe she was the best pick for our University.
As a graduate student in Public Administration, I have had the pleasure of being taught by David Jackson, the president of Faculty Association.
I also believe that the faculty could not have a better, more dedicated union head. He fought beyond hard, along with so many of his professors, to get the faculty union into the University and I believe our University is better for it.
I truly do believe in an ideal world, Mazey would not cut positions. I believe that she would probably want more professors, considering she was one for years. I would say that Jackson would also like to see more professors too. Why are they now enemies?
Obviously, faculty and administration are always going to be at odds; that is the way it is. But let us look deeper at who the real villain is.
If you know me, you know the answer: the Ohio Republican Party.
We have had a Republican governor every year, save four since January 1991. The legislature has been Republican almost all of those years as well.
Since 1994, the way Ohio funds K-12 education has been unconstitutional with no solution in sight.
Law demands a balanced budget and the Supreme Court’s ruling dictates at least halfway decent funding for Ohio K-12 education. On top of this, Ohio Republicans have lowered the state income tax, giving our richest citizens a huge surplus of money they don’t need.
Who has borne the brunt reorganization of funding in our state? Public universities.
As our aid to our public colleges has not kept up with inflation, colleges are left scrambling to balance their budgets. Huge tuition decreases had been the solution for a while; but the law of diminishing returns kicked in on that practice. So what is left to do? The answer is to cut, cut and cut more.
That is the reality Mazey is left with.
The point is as long as we elect politicians in this state who couldn’t care less about funding our public universities, this painful process will only repeat ceaselessly.
It is time we wake up and see that Republican rule has been an abject disaster for every part of our state, including our public universities. As long the conservative cabal remains in power, bad news for us and other public universities will follow. God help Mazey, Jackson and us all if they keep running our state.
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