AA NEWS editorial on EMU budget critique

The Ann Arbor NEWS’s lead editorial yesterday (Monday Jan. 23), “Heartening signs from EMU budget critique” is quite good.  It’s based on the Budget Forum sponsored by Faculty Council a week ago, at which members of the EMU Faculty, presented a solid critique of the EMU budget.  (Maybe one of the quicker than me EMUTalk folks can post a link to it here?  I read newspapers in print.)    The editorial’s substance can be summarized in its subhead, “Faculty, administrators tackle issues civilly” and in the statement that “In general, the report stated that EMU uses a method of accounting that results in an overstatement of expenses. The report is also critical of the percentage spent on instruction compared to other areas, such as sports, and states that EU spends less on academics than do some of its peer institutions.”  Further, the editorial states that “the faculty raised some valid points in the report” and praises Provost and Executive VP Don Loppnow for his gracious reaction to hearing the report. I commend the AA NEWS for this editorial, and for the previous news article on the budget forum.    And now, may one of  many more talented than me folks link it here?    And I believe that the highly informative slides of the faculty presenters on the budget was already posted on this blog.  Well worth reading, if you’ve not already: Budgets are the means by which organizations set priorities.