Dear Members,<\/p>\n
I am in receipt of your letter dated Feb 9, 2011.<\/p>\n
The first thing I have to point out is that the Administration is
\nresponsible for negotiating union contracts, not the Board of Trustees. The
\nBoard of Trustees has oversight on the budget proposed by the
\nadministration, and those contracts are part of the overall budget.\u00a0 In
\nessence, the Board makes a determination if the college can afford the
\nproposed budget.\u00a0 Salaries and Benefits account for the vast majority of the
\nbudget.<\/p>\n
That being said, I want you to know that the Board of Trustees is aware of
\nthe enormous dedication and contributions of the staff at The Cooper Union.
\nWe all know that The Cooper Union is a special place that we are all proud
\nto be a part of.\u00a0 The Board members are so committed to the mission of the
\ncollege that they devote considerable time and effort on the various
\ncommittees with no financial compensation.\u00a0 In addition, each and every
\nBoard member donates money to The Cooper Union as an additional show of
\nsupport.<\/p>\n
Considering the facts at hand; a sluggish economy, the recent collapse of
\nthe markets (somewhat recovered), reduced contributions, and increased
\ncosts, I truly believe that the administration is acting in good faith.
\nThe Cooper Union is not a government entity that can ‘print’ money. Just as
\nwe all benefitted during the easier times, we all have to share some of the
\nburden during these trying times if The Cooper Union is to continue to
\nprovide access to excellence to our students for another 150+ years.\u00a0 That
\nis the goal, and the responsibility of The Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n
This might not be exactly what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth.<\/p>\n
Thank you for everything you do for The Cooper Union.<\/p>\n
Looking towards better times ahead, Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Mark L. Epstein (Art ’76)
\nChairman of the Board of Trustees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Members, I am in receipt of your letter dated Feb 9, 2011. The first thing I have to point out is that the Administration is responsible for negotiating union contracts, not the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees has oversight on the budget proposed by the administration, and those contracts are part of … Read moreLetter to UCU from Mark Epstein, Chairman of the Board of Trustees<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.memberucu.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}