Absolute Bullshit but the ISU Administration

There is so much bullshit being sold to students, they should issue a pair of waders when you pay your student fees. Here is an outline of concerns.

A. The re organization- Provost Olsen came to the Student Senate meeting and promised students would be involved with the re-org. But no students were on any of the [hand picked by administration] committee. Then even after the committees were selected, they were not allowed to have budget information that could have informed their decisions. THEN even after that, not ONE of the committee's suggestions was included in the final plan.

And to add insult to injury, instead of having student participation, they hold these "forums" and don't tell students until less than 24-hrs notice, and only give 1 week of comment on the re-org. Now they are trying to cover their asses by holding a student forum.

This imitation of democracy doesn't fool me. They've made the decision and now they want to look like "the process was transparent."

This comment process is how the DEQ works, or rather doesn't. Just look at the huge number of lawsuits the DEQ has in the federal courts.

B. The 9.9% student increase to student fees being asked for by ISU now. I wrote about the State Boards decision last year to allow universities the ability to ask for more than 10% under the guise of a financial emergency. Now the university is acting coy about its decision. Here is the story from last year.
http://www.kmvt.com/news/local/79024207.html

This is a political move by ISU and it is sneaky and I would call it bullshit. ISU knows they won't get 9.9%; it would upset the students too much. Instead they have asked for the absolute maximum under what they promised not to ask for, [quoting James Fletcher, the university’s vice president of finance and administration, said in The Idaho State Journal 12/16/09, “the State Board’s decision has mistakenly been interpreted as a green light for universities to impose severe tuition hikes."

This is them poising themselves as "the good guys" when really they are the bad guys. They also have shown undue influence over the students.

President of ASISU Knight should be screaming from the roof-tops. But alas, he is complicit in their sneaky despise of the students (and Idaho voters) they are supposed to serve. He is now also trying to pose himself as "a good guy" and call a meeting about the re-org, while the invitation didn't mention the fee increases.

And on the re-org, if 3100 hours of handpicked well-educated people can't come up with 1 suggestion that is included in the re-org, then why should we think that they would actually respect what student have to say.

What has the change in administration from Dr. Bowen to Dr. Valias? More administration.

For years now full-time support staff has outpaced enrollment. ISU is not the only one.
See this article about it called "Staff Jobs on Campus Outpace Enrollment."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/education/21college.html?scp=1&sq=tamar%20lewin%20staff%20jobs&st=cse

How much more evidence do I need to give for people to get it? We can't sit by and let them decide what is best for us. We are adults who can make responsible decisions for ourselves.
More administration doesn't guarantee a better education or job security once we are educated.

Meet tonight at 5:30 pm [Monday 2/22/10], in the Salmon River Suite, ISU SUB.
We must get organized if we are going to make them take back their bullshit.