Have you ever wondered how UMD spends all its money?
Or why there always seems to be money available for athletics, fancy new buildings, and the sky-high salaries of university upper administrators, but the university pleads poverty when we ask for living wages for staff and graduate students, meaningful childcare support, new faculty lines, or cost-of-living raises?
We share your confusion and we want to do something about it: crack open UMD’s finances with an independent, comprehensive financial analysis.
To do this, we need to raise $6,000 to hire Professor Howard Bunsis (MBA, JD, PhD), a leading expert in university finances. Help us make this happen by donating.
Then, forward this email to your friends and colleagues and ask them to donate.
This financial analysis is urgent. UMD is preparing a 10-year Strategic Plan—a plan partly outsourced to a corporate consulting firm, Huron, and crafted by a Steering Committee, largely composed of high-level administrators paid an average of over $300,000/year. If Huron’s past track record at other universities is any indication, there are significant reasons for concern. External reviews of university finances have proved remarkably successful at other universities in debunking the tired claims of university leadership that there is no financial alternative to layoffs, program closures, and salary/hiring freezes. With our own financial analysis, we believe we can convincingly fight back against these measures and advocate effectively for using UMD’s resources to achieve our research and educational goals, and to support those who make our campus work.
We reject the narrative that says there isn’t enough money for people’s needs at UMD, but there is for the administration’s priorities.
Please help us and donate here.
Lastly, we are elated to conclude this email with exciting news! The union of staff on campus, AFSCME Local 1072, is in solidarity with us, and their members have donated their dues to support us in this project. They have generously pledged the first $2,000 of the total of $6,000 we need. We are asking you to join all of us, and make a small (or large!) donation to give us the tools we need to make UMD a better university.
Please donate here on our GoFundMe page and spread the word by forwarding this email and liking/retweeting our announcement on Twitter!
P.S. Look out for emails in the coming days that give more information about successful financial analyses at other universities.
Not on UMD AAUP’s email list but would like to be? Sign up here.
Update: You all are incredible! You helped us raise the entire amount in less than 8 hours! Thank you so much! Any additional money donated over the $6,000 required for the financial analysis will go towards helping us developing other such exciting initiatives. Please consider supporting our work to make UMD a better university.