Students Protest University of Chicago Budget Cuts, Say Admin Is “Acting Like a Corporation”

[marmar]

(In These Times) “UChicago says they’re broke, we know that’s a goddamn joke!” chanted about 60 students and alumni as they gathered outside the University of Chicago Admissions Office Thursday afternoon. The university faced its second sit-in in two days with a dozen imminently graduating seniors gathering to protest the University of Chicago’s proposed budget cuts of 5-6% to all non-academic staff and student positions, with academic departments taking at 2% hit.

The protestors, who arrived ready in their graduation caps and gowns, say that they are responding to budget cuts totaling near $30 million. They say the cuts will mean the firing of low-wage and mid-level campus workers, layoffs and freezes to student employment, and tuition and fee increases in all departments and divisions. These cuts come at a time when the university has poured $1.5 billion into campus remodeling in recent years and is in the middle of a $4.5 billion capital campaign.

Students are concerned about immediate threats to student services and staff, but deeper frustrations were evident in the crowd’s call to the university, insisting “Your job is education, don’t act like a corporation.” Students are angry about the larger evolution of higher education towards a corporate profit-seeking model—a process of which the University of Chicago has been at the forefront.

Budget cuts at the U of C are implemented through a reduction in the amount of funding that each university division receives as a total operating budget from the central administration each year. Each division is then left to decide how to absorb the cuts, which could mean the loss of jobs or spikes in tuition. .................(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18021/students-protest-university-of-chicago-budget-cuts-say-admin-is-acting-like

[Travis_0004]

1. So thet would rather see tuition go up?

[Buzz Clik]

2. Smells like a mismanaged budget.

Students are demanding a guarantee that there will be no loss of student or low-wage jobs or tuition hikes as a result of budget cuts, as well as greater transparency and open discourse with students regarding the university’s budget plans. Protesters are also demanding action on issues of sexual assault and Title IX enforcement, racial profiling of minority students and community members by university police, as well as the demands of the Trauma Center Coalition activists who were arrested on Wednesday.

Why is an institution with a $7.55 billion endowment and in the process of raising $4.5 billion more cutting its budget? The answer starts with debt. As recently reported by Crain’s Chicago Business, Moody's Investors Service downgraded $3 billion of U of C debt last year. In January, Moody’s again stated concerns about “thin” cash flow and rising debt service, stating that university debt is on track to grow by $450 million through fiscal 2018. These debt costs are associated with ambitious building programs—which, as Crain’s has also noted in the past, are part of the U of C’s consistent effort to attain and maintain a status on par with the Ivy League.

[malthaussen]

3. They are a corporation.

U Chicago is a private school.

-- Mal

[HooptieWagon]

4. Irony in that UoC is the home of neoliberal economic theory.