Upper administrators aim to ease Univ. budget crisis

Constructive criticism is always useful. However, in her letter of April 9, Professor Bethany Moreton makes several misstatements.

First, she is wrong that, if furloughs come to the University, administrators at any level will be exempted. Everyone will be furloughed, from President Michael Adams down.

Second, she is wrong to compare the salaries of University administrators to those of the executives of large corporations – the comparison is inaccurate, and surely she does not mean to suggest their salaries are somehow to blame for the University’s current financial plight. Our administrators earn their salaries, as do our faculty, and the University could not survive without them.

Third, the University’s investment in construction projects is not responsible for the decline in faculty numbers. We all have benefited from these projects, funding for which is not linked to funds that support faculty and staff positions. (Declining faculty numbers are a serious problem that concerns us all.)

Finally, Professor Moreton seems unaware that the higher administration has repeatedly and significantly over the past several years managed to shelter the University from the worst of the budget crisis. Last year, when other state employees received no salary increase, we received a 3 percent raise plus additional amounts provided by upper administration.

In a year when the state budget was cut by more than 10 percent, our cut in the Franklin College was 4 percent less. Upper administration has provided extra support for teaching funds, operating budgets, travel and research. The University is now suffering the most severe budget crisis in years, and everyone in the upper administration is working aggressively to minimize its impact.

Hugh Ruppersburg
Senior Associate Dean
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences