Top MnSCU Administrators Get

$415K in Bonuses 

  

What are these folks thinking?

From the Pioneer Press:

More than $415,875 in one-time performance pay went to Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system presidents and vice chancellors this year — again sparking outrage from union officials whose members are dealing with a pay freeze.

"This is not the time to be paying bonuses — when they're laying people off," said Minnesota Association of Professional Employees Executive Director Jim Monroe in a statement Friday. "Minnesota is reeling from the worst recession any of us have seen, and they have decided to give bonuses to these positions."
 
In June, the professional employees association called on MnSCU Chancellor James McCormick to return his $40,000 bonus, and Monroe again urged top staff in the system to pass up the incentives. 

Eliot Seide, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, joined that call. The union represents more than 3,500 of the system's 10,000 employees, including nine of 41 staff members in the chancellor's office who were told they would lose their jobs next week, Monroe said. About 50 AFSCME members were laid off last year.

"The trustees are passing out bonuses with one hand, and they are handing out pink slips and tuition increases with the other," Seide said. "It's outrageous. It's unfair. It's immoral, and it should stop."

Amen, brother.  This demonstrates unequivocally how out of touch the trustees and the MnSCU administrators are with the mood of the state.  

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