Let them eat 2% more cake

I'm less bemused by President Bruininks's huge double-5% raise than I am by the timing of the announcement: Friday before Spring Break. Nice and quiet, the campus is; deserted, even. But between the measly 0-2% wage increases most U. workers have received since 2000, and the enormous tuition increases students have been suffering, I doubt that anyone other than Bruininks and his dependents will be pleased with this.

Perhaps the Regents are rewarding him for finally removing unsightly poor students from the U. community (by closing General College). Or maybe his holding down of labor costs does merit a coupla big pay hikes for himself, even though these flatlined worker wages have decreased productivity while sparking more and more resentment and division in the University community.

Certainly Bruininks has lobbied hard, against some nasty opposition, to achieve some reform. In some ways, I do hope the man's "Strategic Positioning" vision of a world-famous public research university in Minnesota does turn the campus into a ticking machine fueled by mostly private market-driven dollars, since that might even encourage some benificence and fairness in the distribution of wages among employee groups. I don't foresee the Minnesota legislature emptying dumpsters full of greenbacks onto the University anytime within the next century.

But President Bruininks, your two 5% pay increases are a slap in the face to the masses of workers who actually make the University work. I hope that you will stick to your principles and refuse it, maybe settle for 2% instead, and keep smiling at the stark future that awaits us.