Luke Kenley is one of the legislators that I respect most, but this (and this) feels like unfair micromanaging. My take on it is that the General Assembly cut state funding for the universities, so the universities responded by raising tuition — in a manner that is in line with other Big 10 universities. If Kenley and/or the General Assembly wanted to dictate the manner in which the universities responded to the budget cuts, they should have put it in the legislation.
And if we want a full-year General Assembly let’s have one.
Kenley reminds me of Lugar. Probably the best you can hope for in Indiana, possibly a little better than we deserve. Smart, serious, probably decent, likely doesn’t suffer the fools in his own party in private. But finds a way to reliably back whatever it is they want.
Kenley is really smart, just ask him, he’ll tell you!
It would be nice if Kenley just went ahead and announced that he’s running for Governor rather than doing it through the General Assembly. I’d be much more impressed with him if he were doing all of this because it was good for the people of Indiana and not because it’s good for his future Gubernatorial bid.
A scary part is exactly where does this much power come from. Where in the Indiana Code can this be found?
While I agree with the comments on here, colleges and unversities are extremely wasteful. They build Taj Mahal buildings and pay inflates salaries to professors and administrators.
Ok, Paul, that may be true here and there – but at Purdue these buildings are actually already paid for with donations – from what I understand. Kenley’s committee simply has to give them the permission to build them. And because he wants to make a name for himself – after his GA and Committee cut the regular operating funds for the University!!
Let our money go, Lukie!
Oh.. and btw Paul, Purdue has a hiring freeze except for essential personnel and practically has a zero percent increase for all employees. What more do you want?
The University President – like Martin Jischke — is selected to do huge tasks. His was raising a nearly billion dollar foundation for future funding – to make up for the legislature’s prevarication from year to year. And Cordova’s job is to raise the level of the reputation for Purdue internationally. Also a great person for the job.
I’m kind of sympathetic to Kenley’s point. We have more than 10% unemployment in the state, a lot of economic uncertainty, state workers as well as university employees are going without raises…and tuition is going up by close to 5% at IU and Purdue. And of course tuition goes up every year by an amount that exceeds inflation, sometimes dramatically.
Now there may well be a good reason why IU and Purdue need tuition increases in that amount this year, and they should be allowed to make their case. But I certainly see no reason to unquestioningly accept that these increases are justified in this economy.
Like university tuition, healthcare costs go up drastically every year in excess of inflation, when is Kenley going to start caring about that issue?
Health care can rise 20-50 % in a year – espeically in a co-op. Tuition jumped 5% – which is probably not enough to cover the rise in utilities and oddly enough, HEALTHCARE costs. Imagine that — especially since the universities have hiring freezes and caps on pay already in place.