So let me get this straight.

We’re spending more than $7 million dollars to buy houses just off the western edge of campus and tear them down, making way for an extra-wide sidewalk leading to downtown — a place most Kent State freshmen have no trouble finding by their second weekend on campus.

We’re spending $2.8 million to demolish much-needed parking and build a “Student Green” – an expanded lawn area including an outdoor performance stage – which will, of course, get a great deal of use for the majority of the school year when – wait for it – it is winter. As an added bonus, it’s slated to be finished in October, thus ensuring it will get little, if any, use for the first six months of its existence.

Our university president is paid well over $580,000 per year, counting his remarkable bonus, base pay and deferred compensation – easily tenfold what the average faculty member makes. His “longevity pay,” which increases by $10,000 each year he is at Kent State, already stands at $70,000 — more than the average faculty salary all by itself.

Meanwhile, our faculty has been working since August without a contract, and students are faced with higher tuition at a university which is already ranked as one of the most expensive in Ohio.

I’m sorry – what did you say Kent State’s priority was again? Education? Really?

—Beth Wills

Senior non-traditional student