Letter to the editor

If VCU has accomplished anything in the educational business, it is to distract the student/faculty body while simultaneously spending money on outrageously unnecessary items, then taking it out on the students/faculty by increasing tuition, offering fewer classes, and by firing professors. This is societal theft without any resistance.

Douglas Wilder gets paid $150,000 per year to teach two mediocre classes. No one says anything. New University President Mike Rao receives a $75,000 raise from his previous presidential salary. The sum total he will receive this year $890,000 plus benefits. No one says anything. Now we have a piece of corporate art overlooking the University Student Commons worth $150,000. No one says anything.

VCU has repeatedly shown the city of Richmond it will do what it wants and deal with the corporate interests of firms such as Philip Morris, Altria, Massey Coal and other various corporations intent on making profit at the cost of Richmond citizens. The VCU administration and board of visitors level or reshape neighborhoods in order to build narcissistic structures to praise the companies committed to destroying this city’s integrity. Just look inside the new School of Engineering building to see the metal-plated names that VCU honors.

While reading the Opinion Section of The Commonwealth Times I came across the article about a new student health fee for sexually transmitted infection testing ($45 for women/ $50 for men). At the end of last semester VCU was preparing to make strict budget changes for next year.

Twenty percent of the budget will be cut this year, which is approximately $150 million. Here is the link for this fiscal year budget: http://www.budget.vcu.edu/pdf/budgetplan200910.pdf.

Some of the new restrictions aimed toward “saving money” for this year include cutting full-time teachers to be replaced with cheaper adjunct faculty, freezing/denying all pay raises for faculty, no longer allowing teachers to pass out paper handouts, limiting of student jobs, and no longer offering grants/scholarships to students.

Meanwhile Mike Rao received a $75,000 raise, students now have to pay for basic STI testing, and former University President Eugene Trani reportedly is being given a six-figure salary for continuing to teach one class per year. I have heard adjuncts make $2,400 per class and the average VCU police salary is $30,000.

The corporate ram horn statue of $150,000 (made in China) could pay for 3,000 men or 3,333 women to have STI testing for free. Mike Rao’s income of $890,000 this year could pay for another 17,800 men or 19,778 women. VCU has won in its deception campaign. The citizens will take the punishment without ever knowing they have lost and VCU will write the history.

I encourage student workers to write to the newspaper and disclose how much VCU pays them and any relevant information about budget cuts or how VCU continues to extort the Richmond community.

-Aaron Linas