“The ones who need the most always seem to get the least.” Similarly, in NIU’s case, this statement can be best applied to the Regents’ mind-blowing salary increase.

As concerned students, we agree with Chancellor Groves’ statement which stressed the need for strong leadership in the community. Yet our question to Chancellor Groves is can we afford it?

The 8.2 percent salary increase for Regent Chancellor Roderick Groves which raised his annual salary to $114,650 seems very odd, as does a 17.2 percent retroactive salary increase for NIU President John LaTourette, raising his annual salary to $97,500. Was there not a $150 surcharge to NIU student’s tuition this spring? Is it wrong to assume that this tuition surcharge was needed to open up more class sections and give the faculty their slight pay raise?

One might wonder if NIU’s president and Chancellor Groves came from education backrounds themselves. Just how long has it been since they have been in a classroom?

Chairman Carol Burns attempts to justify the unexplained raise for the administration by saying they are for “competitive” reasons. How can one give away what one supposedly does not have? Even if monies where, ironically, “found” from last year’s budget, why were two important groups left out when the decision was cast on who would receive this great discovery?

Surely the Regents acknowledge the fact that NIU would not be in existence if it was not for the students, and similarly, being educated themselves, the Regents must know what it is like to spend half of their lives earning the merits of higher education only to receive the rewards in the classroom and never at the bank. Just whom were the Regents forgetting among all the chaos?

With all due respect, Chancellor Groves, we as NIU students do have a problem with the salary increase. We believe two very important groups of people were left out, once again, the students and the faculty. If anyone deserves a pay increase, it is NIU’s faculty, not the Regents. Furthermore, the students deserve the right to obtain education through the classes that they so readily need to complete their degrees. Of course that is besides the fact that it cannot be afforded anyway.

Surely keeping up with the Jones’ is not as important as education itself? But as a wise old man once told us, “That’s POLITICS kids.”

Christy Nosek

Sophomore

English Education

Steven Zarch

Junior

Finance