Far too often at our institution, we have seen changes being made at an administrative level without regard to their effects on the faculty and students. Just a few years ago, the university’s president, Raj Echambadi, celebrated a raise in his salary that nearly hit (if not already) one million dollars. This decision was made in front of faculty who, in the same meeting, learned their 401(k)’s would be paused. When questions were asked, no answers came. It is just one such example of our leadership ignoring the needs of our school in the face of a financial cliff. For comparison, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s president makes less than half of what our president makes for an institution that has only three thousand more students than Illinois Tech. If you want a larger example, Stanford University in California pays its president just under 400 thousand dollars a year on average for a student population over twice the size of Illinois Tech.
This story, though, also comes at a time when we will be seeing changes to how our university works, and where the fiscal cliff keeps growing. On April 23, we saw a change in the curriculum rules for students who seek what used to be called the Co-Terminal Pathway, now called the Plus-One Pathway. Elizabeth Hudson announced the changes for those not already within the co-terminal system, which now allows up to 12 shared credits between graduate and undergraduate courses. However, that’s where the benefits stop for the students. Students will not be expected to pay graduate tuition, and undergraduate scholarships that used to be able to carry over into a coterminal degree pathway will be void, with financial aid being available, but not viable as a means of easing the financial burden. The decision was made without a vote from the faculty, which sources say are furious with the administration over this premature decision. Especially because the provost is very new to the administration and has not been seen by students at all, nor have there been real talks with students over her decisions, making her decisions for students seem inconsiderate. Which, let’s be real, they are.
Our president also rarely appears in front of a student audience, and when he does, it’s at a time when students will almost certainly not be available. So, when decisions like these come out, they are extremely ridiculous decisions that put students and faculty last, and the interests of our “leaders” first. This university is being treated like a business, and that is not good. In a sense, our leaders have started to adopt a “rules for thee, but not me” complex. Our education is being suppressed in real time at our university without regard to its consequences. In a country where education is being ridiculed by our own federal government, we are seeing it not being taken seriously enough by our own leadership. It is such a joke that in the face of mounting problems, rising costs of living, and growing pressure from the job market to be more competitive, we are seeing a university leadership that no longer cares what it does in the context of its students.
If our university wants our feedback so badly, then stop sending us surveys and sit down with us, face to face in the commons, in Hermann Hall, anywhere. Give us the chance to tell you how we feel. Ask us, don’t just tell us about the changes you want to make. This university feels like a dictatorship more and more every day we are here. If you ever want to make a good impression on new students, don’t just make a nice speech and call it a day. Actually, do good things for the student community. Because, to be very honest, you have cut enough of our student staff, faculty, and degrees to a point where this university’s legacy will mean NOTHING in the future. Instead of cutting us, we should be cutting you, President Raj Echambadi and Provost Elizabeth Hudson. Fix our university instead of fixing your salary. You read that right. Resign or rebuild.