terrapinsanity.com

Everyone here knows the latest Board of Public Works action didn’t address even half the projected state shortfall, so the latest round of budget actions in College park clearly are just the next of a long sequence of painful steps. Administrators are feeling the burn, all right, and if they didn’t before, then they sure did after the Provost’s emergency meeting of his Deans the other day, after which word went out that proposals for even more cost cutting measures must be on his desk in September (all with a prominent “confidential” stamped on every page – no press allowed!)

The President’s office has opened up its web site for the troops to propose cost cutting tips. We’re entertained with the full spectrum of predictable tips big and small – anything from recycling postit notes and two sided copying through elimination of unproductive colleges. Be careful what you say though: it is only accessible after you sign-in with your campus LDAP identity, and … their web site downloads tracking cookies to boot.

This must be leadership’s way of ensuring suggestions remain consistent with the One Approved way of doing business on campus. Nobody in high enough a position to expose real cost savings ideas would dare express it there!