The budget cuts for USNH that the state senate approved last year are beginning to take a toll on the UNH campus. Roughly $33 million from UNH's budget was slashed and already dozens of UNH employees have been laid off, labs are on the brink of being shut down and many more fear for their future.
UNH has been looking at ways to help raise more money, especially since the cuts arrived while trying to build a new $50 million business school with barely half the money raised and other buildings remain in poor conditions.
Students have been asked to help out in even the smallest ways. Dorms are implementing new "lights out" policy that requires students to shut of all the lights and electrical devices by 11PM. This will help save on the school's energy bill and will force students to study more during the daylight, which should take away from their free time when illegal activities may occur.
UNH dormitories have also officially adopted the slogan "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" in hopes to keep the water bill down.
All parking ticket fines will be doubled as of Monday, April 9th and those funds will go directly into all the athletic coaches' raises.
In order to save on the internet bill, UNH will also be blocking all adult websites, including pornography and Reddit, because that is estimated to reduce internet usage by approximately 78% campus wide.
Lastly, all tuition (and other various payments) made online to UNH will now have a $25 "convenience charge," because fuck you.
Showing posts with label budget cuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget cuts. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Looking back to move forward
Over three and a half years ago on a hot and humid August morning I remember pulling onto campus with my mom in her blue Ford Freestyle. We followed the signs that directed us towards Williamson Hall and we pulled up on the sidewalk and began unpacking. I remember exchanging awkward glances and head nods with different kids on my floor, a few of who I currently share an apartment with today. We had an extremely tight floor, which really helped mold my non-academic career at UNH. It has been an absolutely insane few years for me at UNH and I do not plan to change that for my last couple of months here.
On of the most common things I’ve written, whether it is in this column or on my blog, is that I would not start worrying about life in the “real world” until the second semester senior year. Now that I am a second semester senior, even now that my final spring break has ended, I can say that not much has changed. Am I worried about my future? No, not really. Am I anxious about finding a job out there? That is starting to build a little more with each passing week. Am I going to miss UNH, the friends I’ve made here and all our shenanigans? Absolutely.
I have always been the easygoing “one-day at a time” type of person. For example, I commonly say “well, I can always just start that paper tomorrow.” I am honestly not sure if it is good or bad that I am like this, but it definitely makes things a lot less stressful, which is a huge bonus in college and my grades have always been really well. If there is one thing I have noticed that hurt people in their college careers, it is not being able to appropriately deal with the levels of stress they encounter.
UNH has been such a special place for me and with graduation (that evil “G” word that should not be spoken) right around the corner it is safe to say that I would not have wanted to go anywhere else. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t change anything. To put it simply I wish I could have done more during my time here, to have made a bigger impact on the UNH community.
UNH is far from perfect, but it has been such a perfect fit for me. I’m more educated, well rounded and I can honestly say that the most important thing that college has taught me is to think on my own. But to put that in even simpler terms, college had taught me how to think. That is really important.
Side note to the Union Leader: notice how I said UNH has taught me “how” to think and not “what” to think. There is a major difference. UNH has done more for this state and our young people than the Union Leader could ever dream of doing.
Academics aside, UNH has done even better things for me. Most important to me is my close group of friends. These are people who I know I will remain in contact with for the rest of my life no matter where our different paths take us. A major knock against UNH that many people have is that we lack a strong sense of community and traditions. But UNH is what you make of it and that freedom is undeniable. Whether your best friend is a specific carrel in Dimond or your floor mates from freshman year, UNH is everything you allow it to be.
As a senior who is about to move on I would like to issue a challenge to the underclassman here. Never be satisfied, always strive for more out of yourself, your school and this state. UNH is a fantastic place, but it is up the students to make it even better. Even if it is something simple like changing quiet hours, the students have proven that we have the upper hand against the administration if you use it correctly.
Continue to make the UNH community stronger by creating new traditions and our school will become impossible for the state to ignore. UNH already deserves a higher respect from the state, we are its flagship university, but until the voters and the people in Concord, and sadly the people who run the Union Leader because it is the state’s only major newspaper realize that, UNH is going to have to keep fighting for itself. The administration cannot do that alone, so student support is absolutely necessary. Keep fighting, do not be satisfied and demand respect because UNH deserves it.
Stay classy, not UMassy
On of the most common things I’ve written, whether it is in this column or on my blog, is that I would not start worrying about life in the “real world” until the second semester senior year. Now that I am a second semester senior, even now that my final spring break has ended, I can say that not much has changed. Am I worried about my future? No, not really. Am I anxious about finding a job out there? That is starting to build a little more with each passing week. Am I going to miss UNH, the friends I’ve made here and all our shenanigans? Absolutely.
I have always been the easygoing “one-day at a time” type of person. For example, I commonly say “well, I can always just start that paper tomorrow.” I am honestly not sure if it is good or bad that I am like this, but it definitely makes things a lot less stressful, which is a huge bonus in college and my grades have always been really well. If there is one thing I have noticed that hurt people in their college careers, it is not being able to appropriately deal with the levels of stress they encounter.
UNH has been such a special place for me and with graduation (that evil “G” word that should not be spoken) right around the corner it is safe to say that I would not have wanted to go anywhere else. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t change anything. To put it simply I wish I could have done more during my time here, to have made a bigger impact on the UNH community.
UNH is far from perfect, but it has been such a perfect fit for me. I’m more educated, well rounded and I can honestly say that the most important thing that college has taught me is to think on my own. But to put that in even simpler terms, college had taught me how to think. That is really important.
Side note to the Union Leader: notice how I said UNH has taught me “how” to think and not “what” to think. There is a major difference. UNH has done more for this state and our young people than the Union Leader could ever dream of doing.
Academics aside, UNH has done even better things for me. Most important to me is my close group of friends. These are people who I know I will remain in contact with for the rest of my life no matter where our different paths take us. A major knock against UNH that many people have is that we lack a strong sense of community and traditions. But UNH is what you make of it and that freedom is undeniable. Whether your best friend is a specific carrel in Dimond or your floor mates from freshman year, UNH is everything you allow it to be.
As a senior who is about to move on I would like to issue a challenge to the underclassman here. Never be satisfied, always strive for more out of yourself, your school and this state. UNH is a fantastic place, but it is up the students to make it even better. Even if it is something simple like changing quiet hours, the students have proven that we have the upper hand against the administration if you use it correctly.
Continue to make the UNH community stronger by creating new traditions and our school will become impossible for the state to ignore. UNH already deserves a higher respect from the state, we are its flagship university, but until the voters and the people in Concord, and sadly the people who run the Union Leader because it is the state’s only major newspaper realize that, UNH is going to have to keep fighting for itself. The administration cannot do that alone, so student support is absolutely necessary. Keep fighting, do not be satisfied and demand respect because UNH deserves it.
Stay classy, not UMassy
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Santa Gnarlz, please come to Durham!
If only UNH's problems could be solved with an extra big Santa bag...
For President Huddleston:
A couple money trees to plant around campus. As a bonus, they produce more money when drunk students pee on them! Take that Concord, you're budget cuts mean nothing now!
For Hockey coach Dick Umile:
For President Huddleston:
For Hockey coach Dick Umile:
Team defense: A team that plays both ways for three full periods! I'm sorry, but they have let up way too many easy goals and it's not all on the goalies. I love the team, but they need something to change going into the second half of the season.
For football coach Sean McDonnell:
Wider field goal posts! (Too soon/harsh?) Okay, okay, how about that new stadium they drew plans for years ago?
For the Whittemore Center:
For SCOPE:
Earmuffs! What you don't hear, won't hurt you.
For Dean of the Business School Dan Innis:
Acela Train tickets! No more slumming it like the rest of us! (Probably one person gets this...)
For the new business school:
The indoor waterfall from Trump Plaza. You only deserve the best!
For Hamilton-Smith and Nesmith Hall:
Even Santa doesn't care about you.
Basketball coach Bill Herrion:
Okay, maybe not the Ray Allen, but someone who can hit a free throw now and again would be nice.
For the dining halls:
Salt shakers on every table! Imagine the possibilities!
For ATO brothers:
Also a hammer and nails. Maybe they can borrow some duct tape from Ham-Smith too...
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and have a great New Years,
from The New Hampshirite. Stay classy, not UMassy.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
What's my degree for again?
In a couple of months, I'll be sitting at my college graduation commencement with my graduating class.
We'll be sitting out on Memorial Field listening to someone talk about how it is our turn to make a difference in this world. They'll say something like "sure the economy isn't great right now, but you can still be successful. Be the change that you want. Make the world a better place."
A few months after that, I'll receive my degree in the mail and it will say "History." But what it should say is "bullsh*t."
One of my favorite musicians is the witty singer-songwriter Todd Snider. In his song "Statistician's Blues" he sings, "Seventy-four percent of what you learn in college is a bunch of bullsh*t you'll never need." I used to think that was the case more about high school, but sitting where I am today, I'd say Mr. Snider hit the nail on the head. And he didn't even have to go to college to know that.
I'll admit I've spent some nights at the bar when I should have been in Dimond Library doing work, but I also know I've spent many nights in the library when I should have just gone to the bar. Is it a lack of motivation? Probably. But at the same time I can get away with it, and it's not because I am particularly smart either.
A few weeks ago one of my professors went on a brief rant about the education system today. He's been around for a while and has experienced it from many different sides.
He quipped that the content of courses and the expectations and quality of work done by students and even professors has worsened over the years. A couple classes later, I handed in a 10-page rough draft of a research paper to him. When we sat down to discuss it, he said that I'm doing really well with it and he could tell I put a lot of time into the research and writing process. He even used my draft as an example to the class. I wrote the entire thing and did most of the research the day before I turned it in. Pot, kettle, black.
If the education system really isn't what it used to be, who is to blame and how can it be improved? I don't really know, but I do know this: here at UNH (and probably at the majority of public schools in the country) it definitely relates with the school's budget. When schools are short on money, big, broad lectures become more common because those classes are cheaper and easier to run. This is exactly what President Huddleston complained about to Concord when the budget cuts were being discussed last year. Experienced professors are pressured into early retirement and lecturers who haven't become professors yet and who are much cheaper replace them. President Huddleston makes about 10 times more a year than the lowest salaried lecturers at UNH.
In May of 1970, three well-known protestors from Chicago appeared at UNH. The most famous among them was Abbie Hoffman.
It was the day after the Kent State shootings, and the three men were originally scheduled to speak on the Vietnam War, but when the school's board of trustees tried to shut it down in fear of possible riots, their speeches became more focused on the freedom of speech and the university system.
One of Hoffman's partners, Jerry Rubin, stole the show.
He shouts "school is just an advanced form of toilet training! That's what school is! And taking an examination is just like taking a shit! That's what it's like! You know you gather it all in and gather it all in and you wait for the right moment when your fucking professor tells ya 'this is the moment' and then the moment comes along, you been conditioned and then you let it pour out, you just flush the toilet. All the shit comes out and boom it's over and you feel so good afterwards! It's got nothing to do with education."
I think he had a pretty valid point.
After the rally, UNH went on strike, the last two weeks of classes became voluntary workshops and finals were cancelled. UNH denies the strike ever happened.
I think it is important to really examine everything you have learned in college and think about what is really important. You can know all the names and dates and formulas you want, but if you can't actually learn from them and apply them to life and critical thinking, then it doesn't matter at all.
The most important thing I've learned at UNH is how to think. I've learned to pay attention to the things around me – the news, politics and life in general. Names, dates and formulas are for thetextbooks Google. Use your mind – it can be a beautiful thing if you know how.
Stay classy, not UMassy
We'll be sitting out on Memorial Field listening to someone talk about how it is our turn to make a difference in this world. They'll say something like "sure the economy isn't great right now, but you can still be successful. Be the change that you want. Make the world a better place."
A few months after that, I'll receive my degree in the mail and it will say "History." But what it should say is "bullsh*t."
One of my favorite musicians is the witty singer-songwriter Todd Snider. In his song "Statistician's Blues" he sings, "Seventy-four percent of what you learn in college is a bunch of bullsh*t you'll never need." I used to think that was the case more about high school, but sitting where I am today, I'd say Mr. Snider hit the nail on the head. And he didn't even have to go to college to know that.
I'll admit I've spent some nights at the bar when I should have been in Dimond Library doing work, but I also know I've spent many nights in the library when I should have just gone to the bar. Is it a lack of motivation? Probably. But at the same time I can get away with it, and it's not because I am particularly smart either.
A few weeks ago one of my professors went on a brief rant about the education system today. He's been around for a while and has experienced it from many different sides.
He quipped that the content of courses and the expectations and quality of work done by students and even professors has worsened over the years. A couple classes later, I handed in a 10-page rough draft of a research paper to him. When we sat down to discuss it, he said that I'm doing really well with it and he could tell I put a lot of time into the research and writing process. He even used my draft as an example to the class. I wrote the entire thing and did most of the research the day before I turned it in. Pot, kettle, black.
If the education system really isn't what it used to be, who is to blame and how can it be improved? I don't really know, but I do know this: here at UNH (and probably at the majority of public schools in the country) it definitely relates with the school's budget. When schools are short on money, big, broad lectures become more common because those classes are cheaper and easier to run. This is exactly what President Huddleston complained about to Concord when the budget cuts were being discussed last year. Experienced professors are pressured into early retirement and lecturers who haven't become professors yet and who are much cheaper replace them. President Huddleston makes about 10 times more a year than the lowest salaried lecturers at UNH.
In May of 1970, three well-known protestors from Chicago appeared at UNH. The most famous among them was Abbie Hoffman.
It was the day after the Kent State shootings, and the three men were originally scheduled to speak on the Vietnam War, but when the school's board of trustees tried to shut it down in fear of possible riots, their speeches became more focused on the freedom of speech and the university system.
One of Hoffman's partners, Jerry Rubin, stole the show.
He shouts "school is just an advanced form of toilet training! That's what school is! And taking an examination is just like taking a shit! That's what it's like! You know you gather it all in and gather it all in and you wait for the right moment when your fucking professor tells ya 'this is the moment' and then the moment comes along, you been conditioned and then you let it pour out, you just flush the toilet. All the shit comes out and boom it's over and you feel so good afterwards! It's got nothing to do with education."
I think he had a pretty valid point.
After the rally, UNH went on strike, the last two weeks of classes became voluntary workshops and finals were cancelled. UNH denies the strike ever happened.
I think it is important to really examine everything you have learned in college and think about what is really important. You can know all the names and dates and formulas you want, but if you can't actually learn from them and apply them to life and critical thinking, then it doesn't matter at all.
The most important thing I've learned at UNH is how to think. I've learned to pay attention to the things around me – the news, politics and life in general. Names, dates and formulas are for the
Stay classy, not UMassy
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Students should pay more attention UNH's fiscal problems
Over the summer I wrote down a short list of generalizations I had about the UNH student body, including myself. I did this because going into my senior year I wanted to pay more attention to the news and the happenings of the university system, especially due to the budget crisis. I wanted to look at what types of things the student body, including myself were passionate about and what things we shrugged off. We are now about a quarter of the way through the year and I thought it might be appropriate to revisit a few items on that list I wrote down.
I went on record last year saying many times that I believe our student body is far too inactive and passive. The evidence I used for those claims were the lack of votes cast in the Student Body Elections and the fact that students rarely truly stand up for what they believe in here. UNH is one the most expensive publics schools for instate tuition in the country. To be exact, we were number ranked fourth before the most recent tuition hike. But never once has there ever been any type of organized student attempt to challenge the hikes.
When state officials in Concord cut the budget by 45 to 50% we sat back and said “that sucks… where’s the party tonight?” I never did anything about it either, but I wish I did. That is why I met with housing over the apartment quiet hours issue. Sure, it is nowhere near the importance level of tuition or state funding, but at least it is a start and it is something that many students did actually care about.
So, to speak in extreme generalizations, if we don’t care about funding or tuition apart from a short conversation or editorial from time to time, what do the students care about? Well, this past few days provides some perfect examples. We care about SCOPE and their choice of concerts and hockey. Which to me is perfectly fine. We’re in college and want to see our favorite forms of entertainment, especially when other schools are getting famous artists and we want our teams to do well. I’m as big of a UNH hockey fan as there is. Check out SCOPE’s facebook wall after their shows were announced. An outpouring of truly hateful and disrespectful comments for one show and then mass approval for the next, with a few comments in the reverse direction as well.
The line for tickets to the UNH-Maine hockey team was over 200 students at 4:30 am Monday morning and all the student tickets were gone around 7:30, just a half-hour after the box office opened. I think that is fantastic and I would have been there with them if I weren’t battling off a cold. But it drives me to ask is: where is that kind of support or passion for the actual school that is being torn apart by our state representatives in Concord?
UNH is in panic mode right now. The state slashed our budget, meanwhile we’re trying to build a $50 million business school and our professors want higher salaries. Usually, I would side with the professors but at this time they are demanding a 16% salary increase over the next four years and have only agreed to a fraction of the benefit changes offered by the administration. President Huddleston sent out a statement saying that the AAUP and UNH are at in impasse and a mediator will have to be brought in to finish the process. At this time is it really sustainable for the faculty to have such strong demands when the university has faced such huge budget cuts?
Personally, I blame Concord for the whole situation. UNH has a great faculty and they produce some fantastic and groundbreaking research, but due to the budget cuts there is no money available to give. Annual salaries increases are very common, this isn’t a situation unique to UNH, but due to the decisions made in Concord it has become a much more drastic situation.
This is an issue that students should care about because it could cause some major changes with how this school and the entire University System of New Hampshire is operated. The privatization of UNH could very well happen in the near future. While that has pros and cons in both directions, it could drastically influence the curriculum, hiring and application processes.
Stay classy, not UMassy
I went on record last year saying many times that I believe our student body is far too inactive and passive. The evidence I used for those claims were the lack of votes cast in the Student Body Elections and the fact that students rarely truly stand up for what they believe in here. UNH is one the most expensive publics schools for instate tuition in the country. To be exact, we were number ranked fourth before the most recent tuition hike. But never once has there ever been any type of organized student attempt to challenge the hikes.
When state officials in Concord cut the budget by 45 to 50% we sat back and said “that sucks… where’s the party tonight?” I never did anything about it either, but I wish I did. That is why I met with housing over the apartment quiet hours issue. Sure, it is nowhere near the importance level of tuition or state funding, but at least it is a start and it is something that many students did actually care about.
So, to speak in extreme generalizations, if we don’t care about funding or tuition apart from a short conversation or editorial from time to time, what do the students care about? Well, this past few days provides some perfect examples. We care about SCOPE and their choice of concerts and hockey. Which to me is perfectly fine. We’re in college and want to see our favorite forms of entertainment, especially when other schools are getting famous artists and we want our teams to do well. I’m as big of a UNH hockey fan as there is. Check out SCOPE’s facebook wall after their shows were announced. An outpouring of truly hateful and disrespectful comments for one show and then mass approval for the next, with a few comments in the reverse direction as well.
The line for tickets to the UNH-Maine hockey team was over 200 students at 4:30 am Monday morning and all the student tickets were gone around 7:30, just a half-hour after the box office opened. I think that is fantastic and I would have been there with them if I weren’t battling off a cold. But it drives me to ask is: where is that kind of support or passion for the actual school that is being torn apart by our state representatives in Concord?
UNH is in panic mode right now. The state slashed our budget, meanwhile we’re trying to build a $50 million business school and our professors want higher salaries. Usually, I would side with the professors but at this time they are demanding a 16% salary increase over the next four years and have only agreed to a fraction of the benefit changes offered by the administration. President Huddleston sent out a statement saying that the AAUP and UNH are at in impasse and a mediator will have to be brought in to finish the process. At this time is it really sustainable for the faculty to have such strong demands when the university has faced such huge budget cuts?
Personally, I blame Concord for the whole situation. UNH has a great faculty and they produce some fantastic and groundbreaking research, but due to the budget cuts there is no money available to give. Annual salaries increases are very common, this isn’t a situation unique to UNH, but due to the decisions made in Concord it has become a much more drastic situation.
This is an issue that students should care about because it could cause some major changes with how this school and the entire University System of New Hampshire is operated. The privatization of UNH could very well happen in the near future. While that has pros and cons in both directions, it could drastically influence the curriculum, hiring and application processes.
Stay classy, not UMassy
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
My Proposal For UNH's Budget Woes
If you have ever lived in the Gables, especially you are 21 you have probably thought or said this before, "How sweet would it be if Gables Convenience sold beer?" I know it will never happen, especially at UNH since they think alcohol is the devil, but hey, we can dream can't we.
If you think it can't be done because it would look like UNH is encouraging drinking, this is my rebuttal. North Tower also sells condoms. UNH is not encouraging sex, but safe sex. If they were to sell beer they wouldn't be encouraging drinking, but safe drinking. No more drunk beer runs right before beer-O'clock hits! That seems pretty logical to me. Yup, not a single logical fallacy in that argument. (If you point one out you're an asshole).
Okay okay. That whole beer sale thing was a joke, we all know that will never happen. That is why I devised an even more genius idea to help UNH fix its financial problem.
It's simple.
We all have to pay tuition right? Wrong! Many students have "earned" scholarships (athletically and academically) while thousands of others have loans so they pay a lot less right now. UNH simply has to tax those students based on how much their scholarships and loans are worth. Students with full-boat scholarships including housing, meals and books pay the biggest tax while students with just small loans pay a lesser amount. It's only fair. These kids are getting a free ride and taking the easy way out and I'm sick of it.
Ah, I have an even better idea.
Tax students who do pay their tuition, but based on their major. WSBE students don't have to pay any tuition tax because they're all going to run corporations one day so why should they start paying taxes now? Liberal arts students have to pay the highest tax rates because they're going to be middle class and the middle class is everything that is wrong with America. Music and theater majors don't have to pay any tax because their going to be on welfare in a few years anyways. Those freeloading hippies.
Stay classy, not UMassy.
If you think it can't be done because it would look like UNH is encouraging drinking, this is my rebuttal. North Tower also sells condoms. UNH is not encouraging sex, but safe sex. If they were to sell beer they wouldn't be encouraging drinking, but safe drinking. No more drunk beer runs right before beer-O'clock hits! That seems pretty logical to me. Yup, not a single logical fallacy in that argument. (If you point one out you're an asshole).
Okay okay. That whole beer sale thing was a joke, we all know that will never happen. That is why I devised an even more genius idea to help UNH fix its financial problem.
It's simple.
We all have to pay tuition right? Wrong! Many students have "earned" scholarships (athletically and academically) while thousands of others have loans so they pay a lot less right now. UNH simply has to tax those students based on how much their scholarships and loans are worth. Students with full-boat scholarships including housing, meals and books pay the biggest tax while students with just small loans pay a lesser amount. It's only fair. These kids are getting a free ride and taking the easy way out and I'm sick of it.
Ah, I have an even better idea.
Tax students who do pay their tuition, but based on their major. WSBE students don't have to pay any tuition tax because they're all going to run corporations one day so why should they start paying taxes now? Liberal arts students have to pay the highest tax rates because they're going to be middle class and the middle class is everything that is wrong with America. Music and theater majors don't have to pay any tax because their going to be on welfare in a few years anyways. Those freeloading hippies.
Stay classy, not UMassy.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
UNH's New Theme Song
Today the Huffington Post ran a slideshow of the richest state's in America. New Hampshire actually topped the list with a median income of $66,303 and a 7.1% poverty rate, which is the lowest in the country. New Hampshire also has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the country, checking in at 5.2%. New Hampshire has money, but very little of it is paid to the state universities. You know, the places where our students go to be educated before working, many of whom will get jobs right here. UNH isn't getting any money because, to put it quite simply, the state's republicans don't want to and anyone who has ever picked up a copy of the Union Leader with a front page editorial blasting UNH (which seems to happen about once a week) knows that the people at the UL will do anything to make UNH look bad. It's the "number one" paper in the state and as one of my literary heros Hunter S Thompson once put it, it's the "worst paper in America."
New Hampshire residents have money, the governor wants to give it to us, but the state senate won't let that happen. Because of all this, I think President Huddleston needs to adopt a new theme song for UNH. I think this would be appropriate:
New Hampshire residents have money, the governor wants to give it to us, but the state senate won't let that happen. Because of all this, I think President Huddleston needs to adopt a new theme song for UNH. I think this would be appropriate:
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Huddleston Speaks on USNH State Funding Cuts
"We now have in New Hampshire the dubious distinction of having experienced the largest single cut to a public higher education system in the history of America, period. And there's not even anybody close to what we absorbed this year," said UNH President Huddleston in his recent interview with the Portsmouth Herald.
I am a US History major and I can tell you that this is not a historical achievement we should be proud of. In the interview, which was on the state budget cuts for USNH, President Huddleston provided startling facts and he let his emotions show.
The article continued by saying how the Senate "got lobbied really hard by private sector institutions and was persuaded to give funds Lynch intended for the USNH to private schools like Dartmouth College, Colby-Sawyer College and Southern New Hampshire University."
Really?! Really?!?!
So, if I'm reading that right (and since I go to a public state school I may not be edumaketed enough to interpret that quote) the New Hampshire Legislature cut funding to the PUBLIC schools and gave those funds to the PRIVATE schools. Oh yeah, because that makes sense. Does the New Hampshire state government understand what the difference is between "public" and "private"? This is a great, and local, example of how the government is being influenced by the private business sector all while hurting the general public. I don't mean to get so political, but this actually happened. Let me repeat that and really think about it for a moment: Private schools received state funding do to "pressure" from the private sector, while the public state schools received the largest cut to public education in the history of the country. If this doesn't prove how influential lobbyists can be towards legislators, I don't know what can.
If this interests you at all, especially if you are a UNH student or New Hampshire resident you should read the entire article I linked to above. UNH really had no choice but to raise tuition this year. When you lose that much funding there isn't a choice. UNH froze salaries (when professors want more money), they had layoffs (Dear Senate, you cost more NH residents their jobs by cutting UNH funding, how'd you not see that coming?) and cut other expenses. The next few years or more could be very tough financially for UNH and our state is only making things worse.
Stay classy, not UMassy.
I am a US History major and I can tell you that this is not a historical achievement we should be proud of. In the interview, which was on the state budget cuts for USNH, President Huddleston provided startling facts and he let his emotions show.
The article continued by saying how the Senate "got lobbied really hard by private sector institutions and was persuaded to give funds Lynch intended for the USNH to private schools like Dartmouth College, Colby-Sawyer College and Southern New Hampshire University."
Really?! Really?!?!
So, if I'm reading that right (and since I go to a public state school I may not be edumaketed enough to interpret that quote) the New Hampshire Legislature cut funding to the PUBLIC schools and gave those funds to the PRIVATE schools. Oh yeah, because that makes sense. Does the New Hampshire state government understand what the difference is between "public" and "private"? This is a great, and local, example of how the government is being influenced by the private business sector all while hurting the general public. I don't mean to get so political, but this actually happened. Let me repeat that and really think about it for a moment: Private schools received state funding do to "pressure" from the private sector, while the public state schools received the largest cut to public education in the history of the country. If this doesn't prove how influential lobbyists can be towards legislators, I don't know what can.
If this interests you at all, especially if you are a UNH student or New Hampshire resident you should read the entire article I linked to above. UNH really had no choice but to raise tuition this year. When you lose that much funding there isn't a choice. UNH froze salaries (when professors want more money), they had layoffs (Dear Senate, you cost more NH residents their jobs by cutting UNH funding, how'd you not see that coming?) and cut other expenses. The next few years or more could be very tough financially for UNH and our state is only making things worse.
This picture I took back in January says it all. First with a cheap goal in the Riverstone Cup and now with state funding, Huddleston and UNH get screwed by officials while Dartmouth benefits.
Stay classy, not UMassy.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
UNH: Fourth in the Nation
Update: Saturday June 18
According to an article on Seacoast online, UNH faces a 13% tuition hike for the next school year. At this rate, when does the tuition costs exceed the true value of a public state university? Let's face it, UNH is just a public state university, soon (if it hasn't already happened) the costs will surpass the value and that could be detrimental to UNH's future. It is not efficient and President Huddleston's wishful UNH 2020 Plan is becoming even less realistic. With the impending budget cuts, deteriorating campus, under funded construction (cough Peter T Paul Business School) when will our administration, alumni and state wake up? Raising tuition is a short term answer for a long term problem.
Stay classy, not UMassy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)