Collegiate Times

Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — This article has been modified from its original publication. Larry Hincker did, in fact, return calls for comment.

“I don’t keep track.”
"
“You don’t know whether you’ve been on a plane zero or 10 times?”

“Sometimes I use it several times a week. I get three times as much done using a plane. We’re in the midst of a $1 billion capital campaign right now. Which would you prefer?”

“You could drive to Richmond,” I said.

“No, sometimes I go to Richmond, then to Washington, in the same day. I work 70-80 hours a week. So I don’t buy that.”

His statements contradicted other university positions. In “Kaine levies another round of budget cuts” (CT, Sept. 9), Hincker was quoted as saying that “this is the worst-case scenario. We’ve got a 15 percent budget reduction.”

The same article noted “a one-day furlough, or unpaid leave of absence, is also being mandated for all university employees in the latest plan from the governor.”

Steger’s response concerning his unchanging salary can be read in several ways. First, he may be unaware that the budget is being cut for “all university employees,” including himself. Second, in his mind he may reflexively exempt himself from these cuts because he believes that he is amazing. Third, he and his advisers may in reality be insulated from budget cuts. If his $457,040 salary is not being cut, while cooks’ salaries are, this deserves further exploration. Generally, we should question why he makes $57,040 more than President Barack Obama.

The article “Steger lobbies in Richmond” (CT, March 24, 2008), stated “President Steger made four expeditions to Richmond,” although he “occasionally drives as well.” If we assume that Steger actually knows whether or not he is in a plane, which is not a sure bet, this means that the spokesperson quoted on March 24 was incorrect.

Throughout the night, the message was straightforward: He is going to run the university how he thinks it should be run, and if this doesn’t correspond with the will of the masses, they must be distracted by bread and circuses, paid out of their own pockets (“free popcorn, courtesy of the President himself”).

This theory of governance is not unusual. It is representative democracy, where the rabbles are kept out of decisions because of their idiocy. Steger probably thinks (“genuinely cares”) that the money we pay for his fine hotels is both out of our gratitude and for the general good. We have seen his false dichotomy: Either he flies in private planes or the university doesn’t get one billion dollars.

In “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand depicts a corrupt businessperson who, driving his company into the ground, tells his impoverished workers that he must live lavishly in order to keep up appearances for outside investors.

The general disregard for students is also evident in the recently completed, astoundingly inept, $300,000 Class of ’59 Graduate Life Center Plaza and Amphitheatre. Months of work resulted in knocking down a wall, rebuilding it and turning on a broken fountain. We could have gotten the same results if we had paid 20 bucks to a couple of mechanical engineering students.

The familiar rejoinder from the administration is that this money came in privately and could not have been used on anything else. This line of reasoning begs a few questions. If this fundraiser netted $300,000, how much money could have been raised if the drive was for scholarships and academics? What percentage of the faculty and students were asked about and supported this use of resources? Was the percentage greater than zero?

The familiar, vacuous refrain sheds light on how the university operates. Our great leaders will deign to grant token representation to students, faculty and minorities. In the end, these three special interests represent virtually everyone. But when real decisions are on the line, we will be informed that in our leaders’ beneficence they “will consider it,” because we are too dumb to be trusted. To ensure accountability, they pass out popcorn; to mitigate global warming, they change light bulbs; to increase diversity, they put on cultural awareness weeks.

When the Roman poet wrote, he criticized leaders for deceiving their populations and the people for putting up with it. On the contrary, Virginia Tech students are engaged and eager to shape the policies that affect their lives. One solution is simple and obvious: hold yearly plebiscites on decisions that govern the university, including allocation of resources. This will never happen, because for a few dozen of our titular betters, the thought of students and faculty banding together is a dangerous form of democracy.

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