Category | Op Ed

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Published on February 26, 2008 by The Sentinel

   A wiser soul than me once commented that there are “lies, damned
lies, and statistics.”  Reading over Casey Childers’s article
“Professors to take petition to legislature over low funding” in the
February 12, 2008 Sentinel I was reminded of that quote.


  

      One need only look around our campus to see the wear and tear, the benign neglect, the overcrowded classrooms, and other signs that KSU is chronically under-funded by the Board of Regents and the Georgia Assembly.  The figures provided by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited in Childers’s article clearly point out the unequal treatment KSU is receiving, with Georgia State receiving more than twice the funds per student KSU receives and Clayton State almost 50% more than KSU.  So what gives?  Are the Board of Regents and the Georgia Assembly under the impression KSU is still a two year Junior College?  Even someone who skated by in MATH 1101 with a D could tell you that’s not an equitable distribution between those three universities.

    Oh sure, in recent times we’ve added new student housing, new parking decks, a spiffy new Social Science building and other lagniappes to paper over more serious problems, but chronic under-funding of KSU is doing little to add meat to the bones.  Could you imagine what campus would be like without those additions?  But the problem is they are short-term solutions to much larger, more serious problems that students typically don’t see or fully comprehend and that both the Board of Regents and Georgia Assembly have ignored for years.  Habitual overcrowding and unavailability of core requirement courses at the 1000 and 2000 level forces students to scramble for alternative courses they may be not adequately prepared for or to resort to unpleasant alternatives like delaying their graduation; both of which create undo pressures for students and image problems for KSU.  There’s no great mystery as to how many incoming students there will be each semester.  It is simple arithmetic as X number of students will enter and they’ll need to take ENG 1101, MATH 1101 and so on.  Yet providing space for these courses is a problem as is ensuring there is enough faculty members available to teach them.  As the expression goes “follow the money” and you’ll have you’re answer.  Here at KSU the bottom line is we aren’t receiving a fair share per student compared to other local universities.  I don’t know about you, but inequality really pisses me off.

    KSU was founded in the 1960s as a two-year Junior College way out in the boonies.  We weren’t a threat to UGA, Tech or even Georgia State.  But as the region and the state grew, so did KSU, in the process morphing into a full-blown university with undergraduate and graduate degree programs and therein lies the problem: KSU is now seen as poaching power and prestige from other state universities.  Yet isn’t economic disparity between state universities a discriminatory practice?  Doesn’t this blatant discrimination say that KSU is somehow inferior to other universities which receive more funds?  Is the need to provide greater funding for GSU or CSU necessitated by some urgent reason that neither the Board of Regents or the Georgia Assembly have disclosed?  Why the secrecy and more importantly why the inequality?  On the sporting fields, in the classrooms, at Mock Trial and elsewhere, KSU students and athletes have excelled when given a chance to compete, yet based on the amount received per student KSU isn’t being given a fair chance to compete.

    KSU’s faculty isn’t taking this laying down and neither should you!  Dr. Christine Ziegler and Dr. Mel Fein are both working on a petition to take to the Georgia Assembly regarding our chronic under-funding and they deserve the support of KSU’s students, faculty and staff.  So what can you do?  Start by calling the members of the Board of Regents and let them know what you think.  You can find their contact information at their web site (http://www.usg.edu/regents/members/ ). Contact your State Representative and State Senator and let them know as well (http://www.legis.state.ga.us/ ).  You may think your call, email or letter won’t make a difference, but the only way issues like this get onto their radar is when the calls and emails start coming, a believe me, when they do they will start to pay attention.  If you’re tired of limit course selections, lack of parking, overcrowded classes and all of the other hassles we put up with each day then its time to pick up the phone and start dialing.  Change starts with each individual; it’s time to make that change!