A step in the right direction

IU President Myles Brand announced Thursday what will become a major change in the finances of the University. For the most part, it was a step in the right direction.\nBrand made plans to accommodate the $57 million cuts from the state and is starting with the top. He recommended that each chancellor on the eight IU campuses cut their budgets by a set amount. How they do that is up to them. Brand also suggested delaying filling administrative positions.\nBut students will also take a hit. The Information Technology department will take a $20 million cut which will in turn require students to pay a higher IT fee. Students currently pay $100 for IT services. \n According to The Associated Press, Karen Adams, chief of staff for IU's IT office said the state budget cuts could keep IU from upgrading it's technology in classrooms and could bring the University's high tech advancements to a "screeching halt."\nIn 2000, Yahoo! Internet Life magazine ranked IU "the second most wired campus" out of all public universities in the country. IU recently got a new supercomputer. \nThe University runs on it's technology. Students are required to e-mail their professors, class assignments are given online and in the world of information what students have access to is unlimited. Cutting from technology -- one of the most attractive aspects of our campus -- will greatly impair our ability to keep up with technological advancements.\nAlso, the University needs to be careful about those "administrative" cuts. Administrative positions span many departments. They deal with everything that is not academic, including those workers who keep the University running smoothly. We cannot afford to lose staff workers, such as janitors and groundskeepers. By cutting part of each administrators' income, we could salvage entire salaries of several physical plant workers that might be let go. The administrator's financial loss would be minimal in comparison to the devastation a physical worker would undergo if they lost their job.\nBrand is starting to do the right thing. He said that students would not have to worry about a tuition hike as a direct result of the cuts. He said the administrative belt would be tightened. This is a step in the right direction, as long as the cuts are made appropriately and with care. Brand needs to keep in mind who is being hurt and who is being helped as he proceeds with these cuts.