A recent survery showed that President Bernie Machen has the eighth highest salary of all public-school executives. While Machen has been doing the admirable thing with the budget cuts (he raised employees salaries by an average of 2 percent and denied himself a raise), there is more that should be done.
Tuesday's rally really reflects a problem with how we react to a crisis. I stood alongside 500 other protesters, signed a petition and chanted, "No more cuts," but we are still missing the big picture.
The way we need to attack this problem is with solutions. As a whole, we can complain and complain as much as we want, but if the Florida Legislature has no more ideas it will just become a circular problem.
It would be nice to see a 500-person brainstorm session on how to fix the budget cuts. Why didn't we protest against Hough Hall, which is currently being built in the midst of the cuts? While I am not suggesting that we cut faculty members like we are already doing, I am just saying that everyone can complain about something. Instead, let's make a move toward change.
