Tuition is going up. That's right students: Your tuition is going up next year. Or should I say resident students? It's not, however, going up the single-digit percentage points that we're used to. No, instead the UW System wants to increase tuition a whopping 15 percent.
Well, I guess that's the way it goes when the Governor proposes a $250 million cut from the UW System budget. So, the UW System is proposing that another 15 percent should get taken from our already empty pockets. Fine. Then I propose that the system president, vice presidents, chancellors, and vice chancellors all take 15 percent from their own pockets. A 15 percent salary reduction systemwide of only the aforementioned positions would cut another $827,970.60. That's $827,970.60 that we wouldn't have to worry about when it comes to making other budget cuts.
This 15 percent salary reduction plan would leave only the vice chancellors of UW-Parkside, UW-La Crosse and UW-Green Bay making under $100,000 per year, so administration won't be heading to the poor house. Fifteen percent seems like a pretty good number--we might as well keep going with it. How about the system's $14 million travel budget? Let's cut 15 percent from that. Are first class flights to the Rose Bowl for school officials that important? That takes care of another $2.1 million.
So, by making just two simple 15 percent cuts, I've gotten rid of almost $3 million. The point is this: If students are having another 15 percent taken from our pockets next year, we'd better not be the only ones.
This is not a sermon, it is a list of observations. Draw your own conclusions.
Joey Fane, a black man, is on trial for killing Dennis Richmond, a black man, in one of the black parts of Madison--the South Side. Last week, the local newscast I watched did not refer to the trial at all.
The audience in the courtroom has been nearly all black. No fewer than 10 bailiffs are assigned to the courtroom, when common practice is to have three.
The jury is all white.
Madison considers itself a progressive community.
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