President Michael Drake speaks to graduates and spectators Dec. 21 during the OSU 2014 Autumn Commencement at the Schottenstein Center. Credit: Jon McAllister / Asst. photo editor
Letter to the editor:
Ohio State is the most unequal public university in the country, according to a 2014 report from the Institute for Policy Studies. What this means in the report is that salaries for university administrators have skyrocketed, while at the same time, students are going into greater amounts of debt. Student tuition is by and large not being used to finance education, but is rather being spent on making a few administrators very rich.
Let’s be clear about what this study shows: students and teachers are being driven into tremendous financial hardship, while OSU makes millions in profit for its administrators. Those administrators line their pockets, and build fancy new facilities that increase the prestige of OSU, convincing more students and teachers to come here and be exploited.
Student debt was more than credit card debt in the U.S. at over $1.2 trillion in 2012. These problems are related to the university structure that is modeled on a for-profit corporation, and this report clearly shows that connection.
Students must demand that President Michael Drake address the IPS report, and lay out a plan for meaningful change. Drake should be prepared for these kinds of mass protests if he continues to ignore the exploitation of teachers and students at this school.
The IPS report can be found at ips-dc.org/one_percent_universities.
Dan DiPiero
Ph.D. student in comparative studies
