Letters to the Editor

Fiscal news an affront to BGSU staff

10/13/2013

Bowling Green State University President Mary Ellen Mazey laments that the university has a projected deficit and that its “current operating model” is untenable, and then pockets not only a $50,000 bonus but also a 2 percent raise from her $383,000 annual salary (“$3M-$10M deficit looms over BGSU; Mazey seeks cuts, gets raise, bonus,” Oct 5).

How can anyone not see this as an arrogant slap in the face to BGSU employees who are told to do more with less, and among whom are some who likely are struggling to make ends meet?

Will the salaries of such people — not only at BGSU, but also at the University of Toledo and elsewhere across the country — be reconsidered when current academic operating models are reviewed by analysts who themselves will, no doubt, receive large sums for their services? Of course not.

I wish this was an isolated case of high-handed disregard for employees and for economic realities, but it’s sadly typical of how the wealthy are squeezing the rest of us these days.

DAVID SEARS

Bowling Green

Editor’s note: The writer is director of folk and world music, an unpaid position, at WBGU-FM, BGSU’s student-operated radio station.