Mismanagement, waste at root of Brooklyn College's problems
Thank you for highlighting the issues we have here at #BroklynCollege in the February issue. We believe the causes of the breakdown of the school's infrastructure are gross mismanagement and waste.
Some examples:
- When the current president arrived she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to create and use a new logo. She hired an outside firm when this unneeded and unwanted change could have been done in-house at a much lower cost.
- Five new schools and six departments were created, prompting the hiring of deans, at quite a pace. In many instances outside chairs were hired at salaries much higher than union scales. New administrative staff was hired to support departments and much-needed classroom space was turned into offices and conference rooms. The additional departments, chairs and deans have done nothing to improve education. In fact, the administrative funding has cut into the budget for adjuncts in many departments. Class sizes are larger and sometimes our students just can't find the classes they need at all.
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The provost's office has grown from a small office to one with numerous associate provosts and HEOs.
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Specialized accreditation is being sought with an astronomical price tag. The budget fluctuates between $6 million and $27 million. No one seems to know.
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Millions have been paid out in attorney's fees and settlements over lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits.
If the college would cut the waste and the pomp and circumstance, we'd have funds to fix the infrastructure and support students and faculty. Then maybe we could return to our former glory of being "the poor man's Harvard."
Editor's note: The names of the letter writers have been withheld at their request because they fear retribution.