Category Archives: EMU President

A few thoughts on 3.65%

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | 3 Comments

So, let’s start with the bad news from yesterday’s Board of Regents meeting, the 3.65% increase in tuition.

First off, if someone where to ask me “what does the phrase ‘throw under the bus’ mean?” I’d say it means not raising tuition enough to cover your obvious operating expenses, and balancing the books that are tilted out of whack by administrative salaries and football by firing a bunch of people you were barely paying a living wage to begin with.  The press release says that all the cost savings will be in “administrative positions” and “cost containment.”  I call bullshit on that. The way the Board of Regents is going to try to make this work (and btw, I think the BoR made the call on this, not the actual administrators, and I am willing to bet that this was the last straw that caused everyone in the Provost’s office to quit) is by firing secretaries, PTs, janitors, etc.  If there is a single honest-to-goodness administrator actually fired/laid off in this deal, I will be shocked.

Second, I have a feeling this 3.65% is temporary:  I will bet anyone a dollar that tuition goes up again before the end of the school year.  You read it here first.

Third, this strikes me as a stooopid message to send to the state, obviously in the mood to slash and burn budgets wherever it can.  By not raising tuition more like six or seven percent– which is what every other university in the state has done– EMU is sending the message “hey, we don’t really need the state funding that bad, thanks.”  Everyone who runs a budget– certainly everyone who runs a budget as part of a big entity like a state office, a hospital, a university– knows that you spend the money. Otherwise, you run the risk of having your next year’s budget cut on the grounds that you don’t really need it.  Everyone who has ever had anything to do with a department budget at EMU knows exactly what I’m talking about here.

Again, read it here first:  I predict in 2012-13, the money that EMU gets from the state will be less than whatever CMU, WMU, etc. get from the state.

Finally, as I have pointed out many MANY times before, no one is coming to EMU because it costs less.  If that were the case, enrollment would be up (and it’s not) and we would only be accepting about half or less of the students who apply (like the more pricy U of M or MSU).  Sure, students and their families make choices on price when the numbers are significant– going to a community college for gen ed instead of EMU, for example, or going to a public university instead of a private one.  But there is no freakin’ way that a student will choose EMU over CMU, WMU, Oakland, or Wayne State based on tuition.

And again, the math doesn’t lie here:  0/0/0% failed in increasing enrollment.  Period. If anything, I think this ABC Warehouse/”Prices so low they are insane!” approach to marketing the costs at EMU is a turn-off, making us look cheap.

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Posted in Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, Staff Life

“Budget shortfalls put more pressure on Eastern Michigan athletic department”

Posted on June 21, 2011 by | 29 Comments

There’s a pretty good article on annarbor.com this morning about sports at EMU, “Budget shortfalls put more pressure on Eastern Michigan athletic department.” Basically, the story reports just in time for today’s Board of Regents meeting something we already know, that athletics costs way too much money.  But I think Pete Bigelow does a good job of presenting some of the less than fun facts about the money we spend on sports in general and football in particular.  A few highlights:

  • “83.4 percent of the school’s athletic budget” comes out of the EMU general fund (fees, tuition, etc.), “the highest percentage of direct institutional support any athletic department received among the Mid-American Conference’s 13 member institutions.”
  • “Athletes make up 2.5 percent of EMU’s overall student body, but receive more than 20 percent of the university’s financial aid budget.”
  • The only reason why EMU is in division I for football is Pepsi buys $150,000 worth of tickets to the games every year (though as I understand it, this is hardly a unique arrangement).
  • EMU sponsors 21 sports, which is “the highest number of varsity programs of any MAC school.”

The administration’s and BoR’s take on this is that the investment in athletics at EMU is just about to pay off.  “I believe we are on the rise here,” [EMU President Susan] Martin said. “I think you’re seeing a turnaround in our programs, our legendary greats are coming back to campus to support us, and we’re generating excitement and attention for Eastern.”   And this: “What we need to do is get football right,” [Regent Jim] Stapleton said. “When we do, I think a lot of the discussion and debate about what we’ve done things this way will go away.” And so forth.  I dunno, but this sure sounds like wishful thinking to me, and not very sound wishful thinking at that.  A number of clichés apply here, but I think “throwing good money after bad” applies most clearly.

In any event, it sure sounds like the decision has been made here, both by the BoR and by Martin.  The closing paragraphs:

“The faculty is entitled to ask those tough questions and know exactly where every dollar is spent and why,” Stapleton said. “I want them to know we are serious about hearing their input and our commitment to listening is genuine.

“But this board is committed to Division I athletics, and at the end of the day, how we manage those concerns is at the discretion of the president and board.”

In other words, “say what you want, but we’ve made up our mind on this.”  It’ll be interesting to see what happens if/when the football team finishes near the bottom of the MAC again.

 

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Posted in Board of Regents, EMU President, In the media..., Sports

“Wayne State needs 7.1% tuition hike, university official say”

Posted on June 16, 2011 by | 1 Comment

This in from the freep web site: “Wayne State needs 7.1% tuition hike, university official say.” Besides reporting on the raise in tuition at WSU and the problems of a lack of faculty input, it also lists some other tuition hikes from Michigan universities similar in many ways to EMU:  ”Oakland University raised tuition by 7% for next year; Western Michigan University bumped tuition up 6.6%, and Saginaw Valley State University increased tuition by 6.9%.”

I heard a rumor that EMU will raise tuition next year 5%, though I don’t know what that means in terms of threatened layoffs and the like.  For the life of me, I do not understand why we’re not raising tuition by 7% or at least 6.5%– assuming that 5% rumor is correct.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, In the media...

EMU All Union Council issues press release on cuts

Posted on June 12, 2011 by | 28 Comments

This isn’t really that new in that it came out a few days ago (it got kinda lost in my inbox) and it doesn’t report anything that hasn’t already been said, but I thought I’d share it anyway (after the continue reading part).  Someone told me that the union leaders suggested point-blank to EMU President Susan Martin some cuts to athletics, and that was shot down.  I don’t know if that’s actually right though because it’s not included in this press release.

Anyway, read on for the whole thing.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Administrator Life, Budgets, EMU President, EMU-AAUP, Professional-Technical, Staff Life

“Will state universities follow GVSU’s 2010 lead?”

Posted on June 9, 2011 by | 5 Comments

Via my feed and an alert reader comes this mlive/Grand Rapids Press article, “Will state universities follow GVSU’s 2010 lead and freeze salaries?” Here’s a quote:

All GVSU employees last year agreed to freeze wages, and some union workers agreed to pass on 2 percent raises included in an already approved contract – as well as boost contributions to health insurance premiums.

Eastern Michigan University President Susan Martin asked union employees last month if they would forfeit 2 percent pay raises to save $3.2 million – and stave off 50 layoffs. The university expects to lose about $11.4 million in state aid.

Let me repeat a critical part from that paragraph:  ”All GVSU employees last year agreed to freeze wages….”  You’ll note that paragraph doesn’t say something like “All GVSU employees agreed at the last possible moment, with no explanation or discussion about it at all to freeze wages….”  That’s a critical difference, in my view.

Incidentally, this article also features a somewhat goofy stock photo of Martin, also shot at a weird angle.

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Posted in Budgets, EMU President, EMU-AAUP, In the media...

“EMU looks for sacrifices to fix its budget;” but what’s with the picture of Martin?

Posted on June 4, 2011 by | 5 Comments

A loyal reader sent me a link to the Detroit Free Press piece on EMU budget cuts, “Eastern Michigan University looks for sacrifices to fix its budget.” About the same story as we’ve already heard here, though the lead here is inexplicably about cell phones being cut.

But I have to say I cannot really get too far into this article because of the weirdness of the picture of Susan Martin that accompanies it:

Susan Martin

I don’t know if it’s the angle or the crookedness of it or the light or what, but it looks like it was either shot with one of those fisheye lenses, or else her head was attached to a different body. Freep, c’mon, you don’t need to dis’ the EMU folks that badly, do you?

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Posted in Budgets, EMU President, In the media...

The EMU-AAUP’s thoughts on “give-backs”

Posted on June 2, 2011 by | 29 Comments

It’s probably not surprising that the EMU-AAUP is not for President Susan Martin’s idea that the bargaining units on campus give up the negotiated pay increases for next year.  Before I get to the email that EMU-AAUP President Susan Moeller sent around about this, two modest and related thoughts:

  • While I agree mostly with what the union is saying about administrators (that there are too many that cost too much), I think faculty need to be careful because when we lose administrators, that administrative burden inevitably gets forced on to faculty.  This is the dreaded “administrative creep.”  What needs to happen, IMO, is we need to be much smarter about administrative work and eliminate duplicative work (various flavors of “program review” immediately comes to mind) and we need fewer administrators.  Or rather, EMU needs a thorough audit of just what exactly various administrators are administrating.
  • One thing EMU could do to save a boatload of money in the long-run would be to eliminate department heads as members of the administration and replace that role with faculty chairs.  The difference is subtle but important:  while a department head is an administrator that serves at the pleasure of the dean, a chair is a faculty member generally elected by faculty in a particular department or program.  Chairs are cheaper since faculty chairs are compensated with release time instead salary, and, in many small departments at EMU, a highly paid department head is overkill.  Now, I make this suggestion in part because I’m relatively confident that the administration will never ever allow this to happen since chairs would be more beholden to faculty than to deans and the like.  Still, I think it’s something that EMU ought to consider in the coming years.

In any event, here’s Moeller’s email:

Dear Faculty Colleagues:

On Monday, President Martin sent a message suggesting that the faculty and other unions give up their pay increases.  Here is a summary of why we do not believe this is appropriate:

1.        The administration is grossly over-estimating the size of the budget problem.
a.        The administration does not include all revenues in their analysis
b.        The administration consistently over-estimates expenses such as faculty salaries and benefits
2.        If cuts are needed, the place to make cuts is in administration and athletics.
a.        There are too many administrators making too much money at EMU
b.        Athletics costs EMU $16 million per year from student fees and the General Fund.
c.        Cuts in the above two items need to be made before lower paid workers at EMU lose their jobs or other workers give up their modest raises.
3.        The process to decide that workers will be laid off has been secretive and not included any of the collective bargaining units
a.        The Board of Regents has had 4 meetings with administrators to decide on layoffs.  These meetings may violate open meetings laws.
b.        The unions representing the employees who have been asked to take pay cuts were not invited to present their perspective to the Board.  When we asked President Martin if we could be invited going forward, she said no.

Bottom line: It is unconscionable that the administration will lay off low paid workers, given they exaggerate the budget problem, do not acknowledge the bloat in administration and athletics, and have not asked the bargained for employees for their input as these decisions are being made.  Giving back our modest raises is not appropriate, as this would lead to pay cuts for many of our members.

A more detailed analysis of the EMU budget situation is below:

 

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Posted in Administrator Life, Board of Regents, Budgets, EMU President, EMU-AAUP

More messages exchanged in “Provost-hire-gate”

Posted on May 19, 2011 by | 10 Comments

This is starting to blossom into a more full-blown controversy between the faculty and the EMU President, and while these things happen all the time, I think this is perhaps the first “argument” that has bubbled up in Martin’s tenure in the position.  I include both Martin’s email and Faculty Senate President Matt Evett’s response, both of which I received last night.  I do want to highlight a couple of important and/or interesting points in Martin’s and Evett’s emails:

  • One of the things that is complicating the Provost search is that the two current associates in the office,  Byron Bond and Bette Warren, are going to be done in their positions in fall.  So, it just so happens that all the leadership in the provost’s office are stepping down at roughly the same time? Really.  Really? That looks less like a coincidence of “personal reasons” and more like either a move by Martin et al to “clean house” or group frustration among the provost-types.  Makes that job all that much less attractive.
  • Martin points out that Jack Kay was ultimately hired in the spring/summer season, but the difference was that when that happened, the search began during the regular school year, in March.  That’s a big difference.  And as Evett points out in his email, the only searches that happened in the spring/summer in the past were continuations of started searches (like Kay), or searches for positions that aren’t quite as important to the faculty as the chief academic officer.
  • Martin appears to be pressing ahead and is asking faculty directly for representation in the Provost search process, which is potentially a big problem because as it is, she was trying to convince the EMU-AAUP to agree to a “Memo of Understanding” to get this go forward.  That’s because the faculty contract mandates input in the process, so if Martin presses on, I’m pretty sure the next step will be some kind of legal action.

Again, I have some sympathies with Martin’s position.  It’s going to be tricky running academic affairs with everyone being interim, and if faculty really want “shared governance” and input in the process of hiring the suits, then there’s something to be said for the notion that faculty– especially those who are going to be teaching in the spring or summer terms anyway– ought to be willing to step up.  You can’t run an enterprise like EMU for only 8 months out of the year.  But the problem is this is being pushed on faculty rather quickly, a contract is a contract, and from my vantage point, this is starting to look a bit like a “pissing contest” between the powers that be here.

Stay tuned for more developments, and read the letters below.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Administrator Life, EMU President, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life

Martin wants to “speed hire” the next provost

Posted on May 16, 2011 by | 2 Comments

I woke up this morning to find an email send around from EMU-AAUP President Susan Moeller late last night, which I include in its entirety after the the “continued” part.  Basically, EMU President Susan Martin asked folks at the EMU-AAUP and the Faculty Senate if it would be okay to do a search over the spring/summer– in fact, over the next couple weeks, by May 27.  She was asking because of the pesky contractually required input.  The EMU-AAUP and the Faculty Senate said “no,” but Martin apparently said “well, I’m going to do this anyway.”

Boy, I think this is a huge mistake on Martin’s part.  It’s not exactly a great looking job as it is considering the budget cuts and the “overly involved” Board of Regents; what chief academic executive would want to take the job over the explicit objects of the academics (e.g. faculty) on campus? This logically must mean that Martin already knows who she wants to hire, but that’s why you hire someone in the spring/summer as an interim and then make it a “permanent” hire in the fall.  And given the track record of provosts since Ron Collins, by “permanent” I mean about 26 months on average.

It is true that EMU hired soon to be ex provost Jack Kay in May, but a) as I recall it, that process had been initiated by the end of the winter term so people knew it was coming, and b) how’d that work out?

Anyway, read below for more of the details.

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Posted in Academics, Administrator Life, EMU President, EMU-AAUP, Faculty Life

“Q&A with Susan Martin”

Posted on March 26, 2011 by | 3 Comments

A pretty good interview/piece in annarbor.com this morning: “Q&A with Susan Martin: Eastern Michigan University president talks about state budget cuts,” by Lucy Ann Lance.  Martin is pretty frank here in not being too happy about the cuts coming down from Snyder et al, about the mistake Michigan has been making for years in defunding higher ed, and how gutting sports isn’t a good idea to balance the books in the long-run.  I think she’s right on all accounts.

Do go read it– Martin says smart stuff. A couple things occurred to me:

  • I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  somewhere along the line, our country decided to get out of publicly-supported higher education, and what we’re seeing this year all across the country is an acceleration of that.  I generally think that this is a bad thing, but given that “opportunity granting” schools like EMU are already close to private, perhaps it isn’t quite as bad as I would have thought a few years ago.
  • Given that a) the state is not likely to significantly increase how much money it contributes to so-called “public” schools anytime soon; b) EMU didn’t get any credit from the state for keeping tuition increases at 0% last year in these budget cuts; and c) students across the board are paying these tuition increases; given all this, I don’t see why EMU doesn’t say to the state “look, since you cut us by 20%, we’re going to have to raise tuition but 15%.”  Or maybe another way of putting it:  there is no incentive for state universities in Michigan to hold tuition increases to 7%.  None.  Nada.
  • Who is Lucy Lance, and why doesn’t annarbor.com have anyone to do these kinds of interviews with Martin?  Kind of a sad sign for the viability of that web site/newspaper experiment.  I wonder they’ll last any longer in business than Borders.

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Posted in Administrator Life, Budgets, EMU President, In the media...