Saturday, March 9, 2013

We're In the News Again!

The Chicago Tribune has a new story about Chicago State. This time, it's the denouement of the enrollment scandal of 2011. You remember that one, hundreds of ineligible students received financial aid and it was all the fault of previous administrations. When our glorious leader found out about it he stopped it immediately. This is simply another attempt to spin a completely unnecessary scandal that a competent administration would have avoided. According to the story, Chicago State will have to pay back nearly $312,000 to the Federal government, a figure the university negotiated down from $614,000. Most interesting, of the 129 ineligible students, 57 received financial aid in 2010-11, Wayne Watson's second year as president. That's 44 percent of the total. In Elnora Daniel's final year, the year Watson claimed the practice began, only 5 ineligible students received federal financial aid. Exactly how long should an administration get to identify and correct a problem of this magnitude? Here's the link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-chicago-state-financial-aid-20130309,0,3135350.story?track=rss

2 comments:

  1. I just sent Governor Quinn an email, I wonder if he will acutally read it? Probably not, but oh well, I suppose at least I vented.
    http://www2.illinois.gov/gov/Pages/ContacttheGovernor.aspx

    Governor Quinn,

    I am a full time student at Chicago State University and I cannot believe the absolutely disgusting patronage system that is going on at this campus. You seem to have let the reigns go and have chosen to permit Chicago politicians dictate who should be running the school, regardless of whether or not they are qualified or whether or not they actually care about the student and faculty well being.

    How many of Mr. Watsons friends, lovers and family are going to be employed at this institution? How many of Emil Jones minions are going to benefit without qualification to work at an actual university? CSU is the laughingstock of the academic community because you are letting people do as they please without any concern for what is best for the students and faculty.

    It's time to step up Governor Quinn, for all the taxpayers who are paying into a university that is in place to give people a chance at a reasonably priced education. We the students as well as the taxpayers are being shortchanged because the money being spent is not going to our education, it's going into the Jones and Watson Croney System Fund. The Board of Trustees is not doing anything to rectify matters and I believe that this is because they are scared to go against Emil Jones and face further repercussion in the long run from him.

    Please help my school from falling deeper into polically tied scandal, as this is definitely not the place for it. At least 95% of the student body are the first generation to attend college in their famlily. We are not students who have political ties or big money to attend private universities. We are at CSU to attain a degree for a reasonable price and deserve to be treated fairly.

    I understand that you may be good friends with Mr. Jones and Dr. Watson and probably give them more freedoms to make decisions because you trust them to do the right thing for us, however, even though Mr. Jones does not even work for our school, he seems to be running the whole show as the puppeteer and Watson being his little puppet.

    Sir, I am asking as a CSU student and also as an Illinois taxpayer to please make some positive changes to CSU administration, as the one now is simply an ATM machine for a select chosen few from the Southside Chicago Politically Elite. Enough is enough, Governor Quinn. I appreciate your time.

    Thank you

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  2. The corrupt administration, spineless board and bovine student body have FORCED me to re evaluate continuing my education at Chicago State. Am I better off staying on schedule to receive my MA in history in May, 2014 at CSU, or am I better off delaying finishing my post grad degree to a later date, and borrowing more money to get it, at another campus? I'm less than two miles from the UIC campus, for instance, and I am SURE that an MA from UIC will not be snickered at, while an MA from CSU will carry with it the danger of being all but without value.

    I will take part in ONE MORE effort to awaken the sheep that make up the vast majority of the student body on the Chicago State campus and mobilize them to take part in the May, 2013 BOT meeting. But, at the end of the day, if lil Wayne survives the June 30 deadline set by the board to complete their investigation into his wrongdoings, I am outta here.

    I have to protect my investment.

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