WSU President Kirk Schulz’s response to the budget petition slaps the face of WSU students and employees. The highlights for review include:

October: Schulz announces a plan to address the budget deficit, which includes ending the Performing Arts program and cutting several “temporary” positions.

December: Three English professors deliver a petition with over 1,000 signatures to Schulz. The petition calls for the highest-paid administrators to take salary cuts proportionate to their earnings, noting the inordinate number of administrators making more or just less than the President of the U.S.

Dec. 19: Local journalists report on Schulz’s response: it would be “inappropriate” for one group (administrators) to bear the “disproportionate brunt” of cuts.

Schulz, there is a “disproportionate brunt” here, but it’s not falling on you or any other administrators. That brunt is being felt by the four soon-to-be-jobless faculty in Performing Arts and their students. It is inappropriate for Mike Leach, who is already the highest-paid state employee in Washington, to get a raise and a $20 million contract. It is inappropriate that the administration not provide any public forum or town hall setting for exchanging ideas and options; it seems you’ve forgotten that you preside over multitudes of knowledgeable, creative and empathetic people who may have better solutions or actually be willing to sacrifice. It is inappropriate that you speak of the sacrifice, pain and disruption that the budget cuts will require. Schulz, how is your life being disrupted by these cuts? Are they painful?