Bonuses for MnSCU management, layoffs for those delivering vital services

MAPE and AFSCME members rallied outside Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Board of Trustees committee meetings Tuesday to protest bonuses given out to the systems' chancellor and other members of management.

MnSCU Board of Trustees is setting a bad example with the $40,000 bonus they handed to its chancellor, James McCormick, at their June meeting. At a time of budget crisis, management should not get a bonus while employees have their wages frozen and are losing their jobs, and students are paying more to go to school.

MAPE called on the chancellor to give the money back. When questioned if the chancellor would be doing that, the MnSCU public affairs office refused to comment.

MnSCU’s Trustees also approved tuition hikes of 4.4 and 4.8 percent for the next school year. (4.4 percent hike for community and technical colleges; 4.8 percent increase for state universities.) This comes on top of a 5 percent tuition hike in 2009. Additionally, MnSCU is expected to eliminate 500 or more positions this year.

This isn’t the first time MnSCU has been handing out taxpayer money during one of the worst recessions this state has witnessed since the Great Depression. The chancellor received a bonus of $32,500 last year. Including his bonus, top staff at MnSCU received a bonus of $287, 500 last year. That’s equal to more than five MAPE positions.

Chancellor McCormick alone makes $360,000 for his base salary, which is seven times more than what the average MAPE member makes at MnSCU. There’s little solace that the trustees didn’t give him the full $50,000 bonus that he could have received. Additionally, the chancellor has received $72,500 in bonuses over the last two years or more than one and one-half MAPE positions. MAPE members’ wages are frozen. MAPE members took zero raises each year for the current two-year contract.