So in that spirit, I give you this. Give it a good read. Soak up the misery. I think you'll find that Minnesota isn't the only state that is on the verge of eviscerating higher education. California alone, it says, is considering more than a $1B in cuts to higher ed alone, to say nothing of the rest of the budget.
This reminds me of my personal theory of budget cutting. Threaten to end everyone's existence and see who steps up with both cash and credibility.
We've seen it happen here. When aviation was on the verge of flying away for good, the local business leaders got together and decided, "Hey fellas, we simply can't have this. No, this will not do. Pass the hat, everyone throw in a few hundred thousand and let's ground all this talk about cutting the aviation program."
The same thing happened up in St. Cloud. At St. Cloud State -- which, laughably, is only just now getting around to dealing with the budget crisis -- they floated the idea of ridding the campus of its grid iron. But the beefy ones objected, and alumni dollars came fumbling in.
So I believe I've made a substantial case for my theory. Cut everyone. Make them squirm. If a program is truly meant to stick around, the people associated with it will step up.
Of course I'm joking. I just wanted an excuse to use that picture of Kathy Bates.
0 comments:
Post a Comment