More budget cuts at UVM & Layoffs at Dartmouth
Posted on | February 9, 2010 |
As UVM (and other area institutions) begin to construct their budgets for next year, we are once again seeing suggestions for cuts that are going to effect both the staff and students. At last weekend’s UVM Board of Trustee’s meeting, Kate Ash, the Vice President of the UVM Student Government Association, addressed the Board regarding a significant 6% tuition increase.
Here is an excerpt from Burlington Free Press writer & blogger Tim Johnson:
As UVM trustees gathered today for what promised to be a fairly routine meeting, they heard their share of the usual onward-and-upward rhetoric. But a sharply dissenting view emerged from an unexpected corner — the SGA.
SGA Vice President Katherine Ash, a senior from Bristol, said students, beset by rising costs and compromised classroom conditions, have reached “a tipping point.” They fear that UVM, by reaching for distinction through big new investments and capital projects, is becoming less accessible to Vermonters who can’t afford to attend. Vermonters account for about 35 percent of UVM’s undergraduates.
“If the university continues to build, fund and invest in outside programs rather than sustaining the current academic experience,” she said, “we will continue to question whether or not the goal is academics or prestige.”
Her comments (more of which can be seen below) were “stinging”, trustee Jim Betts acknowledged. He said the board would take them to heart. (Read more of this blog post here).
Meanwhile, our colleagues on staff at Dartmouth are experiencing more staff cuts to meet the budget shortfalls along the Connecticut River, including 38 people being laid off THIS WEEK, with more to come. Read more about the proposed cuts on VPR’s website from today. Dartmouth staff (most of them) Are unionized through SEIU (Local 560). Visit their website to learn how you can help their effort to stop the cuts.
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