Dear Editor:

In the recent Ithacan issue on the front page, it was interesting to see two columns. The first was on the “Unsustainable IC Budget” and just below it on a new position to “manage initiatives for first-generation students, sophomore students and social media.” This support position would be the third unit of the OSEMA. In a business setting, these positions would be referred to as overhead. In the last twenty-years of reading The Ithacan, it is not unusual to find an article on a new support position or department being formed. These positions all add up and have helped create an “unsustainable” budget.

Questions: 1. How much of the $61,000 yearly cost for students goes to finance these support departments? 2. What percentage of the total student body use these support departments on a regular basis? 3. What incentive do colleges have in reducing total costs when the basic requirement for a student loan is a signature? 4. What percentage of the student body actually pay the full $61,000? 5. What percentage of Full Professors average 3 or 4 hours a day in direct contact with students in a lecture hall, classroom, or lab?

The realization is that these costs have become “unsustainable.” If this is what the college feels it has to do to remain competitive, the students want these support services and with the students being 88% of the revenue source, the students will have to pick up 88% of the tab. Not that complicated.

Jack Turan, BS 68, MS 69