Gross dollars

I would like to commend the outstanding letter written by Jeffrey Houghtby on August 27, 1992.

is letter touches on the feelings of many employees and students at NIU, in a time of so-called budget cutting by the administration.

As an NIU employee in the Building Services Department for six years, I also have witnessed gross mismanagement.

Let me set one thing straight for incoming students. When you hear that there are going to be budget cuts, or belt tightening, it is not the high-paid administrators who are going to be cut to save money. This has made the quality of service students are receiving decline drastically. The odd thing about this is that not a single management position has been cut in this period of time. These people are paid twice to three times the amount of money that the people actually doing the labor are paid.

Also, last year President John La Tourette said that there was no money for salary increases for university employees, yet the Board of Regents gave him a $10,000 bonus for his retirement fund. La Tourette had no problem accepting this bonus. The same Regents were under fire at the time, as there was a movement to get rid of them. A forum was held, shortly after this “retirement bonus,” at the Holmes Student Center in which many professors, senators and state representatives voiced their displeasure with the Regents’ system. Guess who didn’t attend the forum? Sound like a payoff?

This brings me to the new Hoffman Estates Center and the other buildings they are planning to build on campus. Some big questions to ask these administrators: (1) Who is going to teach in these buildings? (2) Who is going to service these buildings? (3) Who is going to attend class in these buildings? Actual answers: (1) Not topnotch professors, NIU cannot afford to keep them. (2) Not “working” Building Service Workers, their positions are being cut. (3) Only students who can afford another outrageous tuition increase.

Students, think about these questions and answers next year when you are deciding whether or not to attend NIU again.

Bob Reed

NIU Employee

Building Service Department