UNCW Facing Budget Shortfall

Funding Takes Short Fall Into Their Wallets

By: Kevin King | Editor-In-Chief

As we all come back to campus from Christmas break, we probably have something new. While inevitably someone received a brand new BMW for Christmas, most of us at least received an ugly sweater or a Pepperidge Farms sausage-and-cheese gift set. Don’t worry about this inequality though; the University has it all taken care of. They have gift-wrapped a brand-new tuition increase for all of us, so no one feels left out! Isn’t that so thoughtful?

The UNC Wonderful Board of Trustees has requested a two percent increase in tuition. This comes at a time when those outside the administration’s ivory tower are stretched financially more than we have all seen in our lifetime. The last time the economy was this bad, Reagan was in his first term and we were just a glimmer in our parents’ eyes. Now, we are trying to weather this economic storm by bettering ourselves through higher education, and those at the top want to make it as hard as possible. Surely, I am just being critical though; there is no possible way they would be against the student population, right?

Here’s where the math proves them wrong. They claim there is no other option, and raising tuition is the LAST thing they want to do. Well, I propose an option that is very simple, and solves everyone’s problems. At UNCW, the top 153 employees make $100,000 or more. After a quick calculator session using the StarNews Online database, I found that these 153 salaries total $18,972,300. What does that matter, you may be asking?

Well, the gem of this whole ordeal is that with the new tuition increase, they plan on increasing overall funding by roughly $940,000. Half of which would go toward financial aid and the other half to creating three new employee positions. Let me quickly touch on the financial aid portion. Does it make sense to ask every student to increase their loans next semester to turn around and give half of that amount back to other students? That, my friends, is redistribution of wealth, and another whole discussion. So, for argument’s sake, let’s say they truly need this $940,000, indisputably. This is where those 153 salaries come into place.

If you take the $18,972,300 and take just 5% of that, you would have nearly $949,000. That’s odd - because that is even more than they are anticipating through the tuition increase. So, if you just decreased the salaries of those making over $100,000 by 5%, this budget shortfall would be solved. This isn’t fair, though, right? Why should the employee make sacrifices? It should be the burden of the student, also known as the customer. The 20-year-old student, working part-time, going to school full-time, and STILL taking out loans. I mean, that’s only fair.
Here are a few last numbers for you. The poverty line for 2009 in America is $10,800 (for a single individual), according to the Department of Health and Human Services. This means that those 153 employees make 11.5 times more than the poverty level. If you decreased their salary by just a mere 5%, they would still be making 11 times the poverty level, averaging out to $117,800 per employee.

The point of all of this is that there is no responsibility being placed upon the employees of our fine institution. In the prosperous years their salaries increase, yet when times are hard, they just outstretch their hand into our thin wallets. In no way is reducing salaries by 5% going to hurt them at all, especially our Chancellor whose salary would drop from $300,000 to a modest $285,000. With no house payment, surely she can get by.

The true travesty here is how the backbone of our University, the professors that actually educate us, gets by on modest salaries. Meanwhile, Provosts, Vice-Chancellors, Assistants to the Chancellor, and other ambiguous positions draw unwarranted, extravagant salaries that drain our funds dry. Yet, they are the very ones who benefit from the hard work of those who actually give the students what they pay for, and provide such a top-rate education. UNCW will still be more than respectable with lower paid administrative cronies. After all, they don’t step out of their offices enough to contribute now as it is.

Right now, the private sector is weathering the recession through cutbacks and salary decreases - isn’t it time for the public sector to have to follow? After all, Cindy Lawson, a spokeswoman for the Chancellor, once said about cutting back in response to “The Conservative Hawk”, “We’ve all had to do it…including the Chancellor and myself, and everyone else throughout the University.” Is that so? I’m still waiting.