As many of you know, Ashland University’s administration has taken a much more tertiary approach to its business practices this year, and as a result of this approach, fifteen professors were let go in the name of maintaining fiscal responsibility.  

The criteria for the decision consisted of data that, according to the interim President’s own Collegian comment, could not inform him which professors were most deserving of being let go. 

We are the students and scholars of this university. But, as many forget, we are investors as well. In the spirit of the mind set of the Ashland University administration, I ask that we consider the costs and benefits of the $21,000+ investment each of us personally made in Ashland University this year.

I invested in a thorough liberal arts education administered by professors I could connect with and admire. 

I invested in a degree earned from being challenged by people respected in their fields, who understand the practical applications of theories we learn.

I invested in small class sizes, as that is the greatest single advantage that a small, private college has over its larger, public counterparts such as Ohio State.

I invested in these things because they all contribute to enrichment of the soul and the cultivation of the mind, which is the foremost purpose of our University. 

I, like all of you, invested in the fulfillment of this purpose, and, like all of you, am waiting on the return. With the way the cuts were recently made, and may be made in the future, all of the things we put stock in are fading away.

It is critical at times like this to remember we are not just a business, and that data should not be the sole informant of our decisions here. No one questions that we need to be financially stable to survive, but if we don’t remember why we are working so hard to get this school back on the right track, maybe it is not worth the effort. We cannot afford to lose what makes our University great in the process of “saving” it, because doing so would only uphold the form without the substance. Receiving a top-quality education is non-negotiable. Our best professors, which cannot be determined by snapshot data analysis alone, are non-negotiable.  

With each passing year since I arrived on campus, the university has endured financial cuts. Many of us are looking around, asking ourselves what happened? How did we get here? In a state of panic, we may create a mistake in the name of making “tough decisions for tough times.” 

We should not run from tough decisions, and I know that in during this year especially, we must all work together as an institution to preserve our top priorities while eliminating our lowest ones. This is the reason for the creation of the academic and institutional prioritization processes. However, what are they good for, when it seems that keeping genuinely good professors has already been deemed unimportant?

Cuts must be made, and that while we will not particularly like all of them, we understand we must grin and bear them for the sake of the financial life of the university. However, when one tampers with the very reason the university exists, not to mention the reason all of us came here, for dividends, things have gone too far.  

I ask all of my peers to assess your investments to Ashland University, and what is worth saving in this time of confusion, suffering, and heartache. Personally, I think that placing any considerations over good faculty will destroy the University’s future in the long run, regardless of the short-term monetary gains.  

I recommend that students bring questions and ideas regarding these issues to the Student Speak-Up on October 7 at 9:30 p.m. Please join Student Senate, the interim President, interim Provost, and other administrators in the Student Center Auditorium to make your voice heard. 

Furthermore, I call on those responsible for the decisions recently made, to remember the purpose of this university the next time they make any financial assessment, because if the mission statement should dare suffer, we would have already lost the life of this place no matter what we “save.”