Bowling Green State to Lay Off 43

I'm a University Administrator, former corporate executive, and an alumnus of BGSU's well-regarded Master's in College Student Personnel program. Points made above (both excerpts) are valid in different contexts. What makes Bowling Green's situation unique is that they have a large staff of bright masters students (probably about 80 or so) who serve in halftime assistantship roles within most of these units (for roughly the last 20 years). While the full-time administrators are extremely necessary to carry out continuity and overall direction of BGSU's student services, the grad students have now an amazing opportunity to run the show, so to speak. This will require (I'm assuming) quite a bit of interaction with the faculty who TEACH in the CSP and Higher Education programs, as those faculty members will likely be consulted like never before on how to run BG's auxillary units. In the past, they were tasked with research and teaching (traditional roles). I have no insider insight on the matter, but I have to think this will change (informally). They are great people and will do what's right for the organization. My heart goes out to those staff who are going to lose their jobs (an avg. salary worth ~$36,000 plus benefits - faculty often make multiple(s) of this figure, btw), and I pray that they will move through this economic crisis with success on the other side.

The key takeaway is that BGSU can do something very few (if any) other colleges/universities can. Before looking at this as an example on how to save $, institutions of higher learning must think about their models of delivering service first.

BG Alum of MO 2:24PM January 07, 2009