Cynic staff. Original editorial: April 29, 2014.
Some students’ favorite professors might not be here when classes resume in the fall.
Recently the College of Arts and Sciences cut numerous part-time or adjunct professors, lecturers and other faculty that were not on tenure.
This is due to the budget restrictions in the college and a desire to not increase student tuition.
The Cynic appreciates the desire to look out for student tuition and finances, however we would rather see the money that is at the University go towards faculty and teaching, instead of other projects.
If the University prides itself on being a teaching-first institution, why are they cutting faculty?
The University and the UVM Foundation are currently conducting a “Comprehensive Campaign.”
This is a long-term fundraising campaign aimed at developing people and programs as well as capital planning projects like the Housing Master Plan.
The Housing Master Plan aims to transform the geography of the University through various building projects.
It is also the most expensive construction plan to ever be conducted at >UVM.
The estimated cost of this project is $100 million.
Most lecturers at VM make $20,000 to $60,000 a year. Administrators can make $150,000 to $500,000 a year with President Tom Sullivan earning $429,093 as a base salary.
The Cynic reported this week that a $300,000 construction project from 2012, which was supposed to make a parking lot more environmentally friendly, turned out to not be as effective as intended.
We feel that the budget at the University needs to be reexamined.
The $300,000 spent on a failed construction experiment could have gone a lot further if it would have been applied to teaching.
The Cynic understands the distribution of finacnes throughout the University is more complicated than that, however, the administration should seek to change how they budget overall.
It would be great to see the budget and finances redistributed so that the emphasis is placed back on teaching and academics.
The reason we’re all here is for school anyway, and it would be great if our course offerings reflected that with a variety of options.
UVM Administrative Pay in the Media 