Where to Cut

Walk into any academic department and you will see at least a couple of people who have little to do. It probably makes sense to cut some of these employees.

Nevertheless, the majority of the cuts should focus on the managerial employees that created this inefficient system by seeking the unnecessary and irrational expansion of their budgets. These administrators should be removed like the cancer they are. Among the UCF staff, it is generally true that the higher your salary, the less your absence matters.

Unintended Consequences

An email to Digital Media Majors:

To All DM Students:

Somehow, a rumor has developed that the Department of Digital Media will be closed. I need to categorically state, there has been no such decision notified. The Department is strong and moving forward.

Nevertheless, President Hitt is concerned about the impending budget cuts. The email forwarded from his office yesterday to all of you had the intention of letting you know what your “Alma Mater” is facing.

If you so desire, contact your Florida state legislators. Ask your friends as well as your parents to do so. Let the legislators know how you feel. You need to get involved.

We at the Department of Digital Media will continue to work to help you obtain your degree.

Cordially, José M. Maunez-Cuadra, Interim Chair

Ha! When the Provost says that if he doesn’t get what he wants he will have to cut programs, then current and prospective students may start to flee. In the process of trying to protect his empire, Hickey may have hurt enrollment more than funding cuts.

Layoffs

I’m going to feel bad if people lose their jobs – it’s not their fault that UCF is willing to give them free money for very little work – but dismissing the right people will increase the efficient use of a finite resource (i.e., money). Unfortunately, in the event of UCF layoffs, I fear that the most useless, politically-connected employees will get to keep their jobs.

The Sky is Falling

From the Sentinel:

The University of Central Florida will be forced to cut 330 faculty positions, 190 staff jobs and as many as 25 academic programs if the state eventually orders budget cuts close to the $57 million called for in the House budget proposal, Provost Terry Hickey said today…

"The part people haven't grasped yet is the damage this will do to the state of Florida," Hickey said about cuts to the state's 11 public universities, citing the wage losses that will affect local economies and the departure of faculty to states with more stable funding.

Because Hickey is a midget and predicting the end of the world, it would be easy to think of him as Chicken Little. Be not deceived! Hickey is the fox who eats Chicken Little and all of his friends. Hickey is predicting the most unlikely, extreme scenario. His predictions are so dire because he wants to motivate the public to pressure the legislature to let UCF keep their inefficient empire.

Indict John Hitt and Evelyn Lynn

A grand jury indicted Ray Sansom and the President of Northwest Florida State College, Bob Richburg, on a felony charge of official misconduct. Sansom steered funding to Richburg’s school, and Richburg gave him a highly paid administrative position.

Senator Evelyn Lynn suggested she was interested in pulling funding from UCF’s Daytona Campus. To save their funding, UCF hired Lynn’s unemployed daughter for 80K a year.

There are some nuanced differences between the cases, but essentially the same thing happened. Lynn abused her power for personal gain, and Hitt went along with it. There is probable cause that Hitt and Lynn committed a crime; both should be prosecuted.

Hate and Obsession

On a message board, UCF Loves Money was recently linked to by someone who wondered, “think they hate UCF or maybe just obsessed.”

It’s clear from the recent dearth of postings that I’m not obsessed with UCF, but I could see an argument being made that I hate UCF. However, I don’t hate UCF. I write this blog because I want UCF to be less wasteful, corrupt, and unethical; UCF should also adopt more rigorous academic standards. I compose this blog because I want UCF to be better.

This won’t happen in the near term, but unless SCH production is the key to immortality, Hitt won’t be able to do his job much longer. As long as short-stuff (i.e., Hickey) doesn’t succeed Hitt then the new President could make an effort to improve UCF. That’s the hope.

By the way, I’m not linking to the message board because a subsequent poster made a comment about one of the stars of this blog that if untrue would be libelous. So, for all of you bored UCF employees, have fun trying to find it.