Editorial #3 UNK Issue

A paycheck is important to everyone. Bills and rent need to be paid, food to eat, and some entertainment is always a nice perk. At the University of Nebraska, across all campus, the budget is once again come into question. The economy is down and money needs to be cut from the budget. This is bound to have an effect on someone. It should be university staff paychecks that are affected.

Tuition is always on the rise at universities. This has a direct impact on students and their ability to afford a higher education. The University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken posted on his blog information regarding the Collegebound Nebraska program. This program helps with fees, books, and room and board. Tuition rates should not be a concern because they just added more money to this program and there are many other programs like it. The rise in tuition does not have enough of an impact on the budget to cover the problem.

The universities could let go of staff that isn’t tenured and put a freeze on hiring new employees. This solution only hurts the students. Not having enough professors to teach the classes means that class size increases. This is not good for the University of Nebraska at Kearney where the small class size is a drawing power. Putting a freeze on hiring other staff is not a plausible option either. When a custodian leaves then it is better to replace them. Having the remaining staff pick up the extra work leads to lowered productivity. An unhappy custodian means dirty buildings. These options for cutting the budget don’t make sense in a community like Kearney, Nebraska.

So what option does make sense for our community? Helping out a neighbor by taking a little less for ourselves is what makes Kearney a great community. If all the employees at the university go two weeks without pay then this will help to cut the budget without a neighbor or a friend completely losing their job. This solution would tighten up everyone’s purse strings but it would keep people from losing their job. If they don’t lose their job then they are not at risk of losing their house. In a small friendly community like Kearney we can afford to go without that little extra if it helps others. Lets all help a neighbor by giving up a paycheck for two weeks.