Lining Up at the Trough (Corrected)

The following post is based on inflammatory information that was presented to me out of context. I have a clarification of the data presented below here.

I am leaving the original post in place to show that I am not willing to partake in revisionist history, but the conclusions I arrived at I now believe to be false.

__________________Original Post___________________

In the George Orwell book Animal Farm, all the animals are equal, that is unless you are a pig. At NHMCCD, all the staff are equal, just some are more equal than others. And as in Animal Farm, those that are more equal are the pigs.

Farmer Jones must have yelled SOOWEEE because the pigs are lining up at the trough expecting to be fed.

Remember that 1/4 billion dollar bond election that failed? Apparently the board hasn't snapped to that fact quite yet because they just voted to give everyone at the college a raise. Now, mind you, most of the staff are only getting about 5%. As raises go, that isn't bad, but it certainly isn't going to break any banks.

But when it comes to the Administrators, things are, as usual, a little different.

The topmost administrators, and this by the way would appear to include Dr. Carpenter, who just started there at an already higher than expected rate due to his recent raise at his old institution, are getting a 29% raise. Lower level administrators are getting 16%, VP's are getting 6%. The claim is that these are needed to keep the staff "competitive", but lets not forget that administrators are overhead and do nothing at all to the bottom line of turning out educated students. The instructors are where the rubber meets the road. If any part of the staff needs to stay "competitive" it is the faculty, not the admins. ANY competent manager could serve an admin position. In fact, given most of the administrators we have right now, any INCOMPETENT manager could serve just as well.

As if that were not bad enough, it gets worse. This was apparently done in relative secrecy. In the faculty newsletter only the 5% raise was mentioned. Allan Hall, the Administration toady and figurehead El Presidente for life of the local AFT union knew all about it, but failed to tell anyone. The raises will be published in the budget books when they come out, but of course, they are not out yet, and there was reportedly little specific information in the minutes of the meeting at which it was approved, and no mention at all of raises listed in the posted agenda. It would appear that the specifics of the raises were likely discussed in a closed door workshop meeting that nobody was allowed to attend and when it came to the public meeting, the raises were discussed in only the most general of terms. The board agenda and minutes are official public records and they show no mention of differing raise amounts. The latest HR newsletter circulated by the district mentions only the 5% across the board raise.

The board also approved over $14 million in "emergency" expenditures that are currently out for bid, and guess who is in the middle of the bidding? Our good friends at Gilbane of course. I'm sure most of the companies that got RFQ's know the score. They are being asked for bids just so the district can say they requested bids from multiple vendors. They know they have no chance at winning those bids so they either don't bother to respond at all, or they pick a number out of their arse. Why spend time and energy producing a decent bid proposal when the odds of actually getting the bid are so small?

I had sincerely hoped that Dr. Carpenter would show some spine and clean up the fiscal mess that Pickelman had left, God knows there is plenty mess to clean up, but instead it would appear that "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss" is the theme of the administration.

UPDATE:
The consumer price index has risen 92.32% since 1986, but the cost of a 4 year degree has risen 343.81% during the same period.

With the administration writing checks that the tax base can't afford, is it any wonder why the cost of education has risen so steeply?

UPDATE II:
Here are some hard numbers directly from the budget book for everyone to chew on.

SALARIES

Acct. # Acct. Name 06/07 07/08 Change

10-00-6-400003-6310 Exec, VC Adminis. 174902 198424 13.45%

10-00-6-400005-6310 Exec. VC Info.Tech. 172604 354378 105.31%

10-00-5-341003-6310 Wkfc. Prog. Adminis. 152282 204588 34.35%

10-00-6-400221-6310 Purchasing Adminis 201700 304606 51.02%

10-00-6-400002-6310 Chancellor 368317?? 483472!! 31.27%

10-00-6-400002-6552 Chancellor deferred comp. 40,500 ?? 40,500 !! -0-%

11-00-6-400006-6310 Gen Counsel 260814 290291 17.42%