To the Editor:

In last week’s letter to the editor (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/16807), Mr. Jones commented on the politicizing of WCU. Let me encourage us all to think about his letter and what is also happening in our university system. 

Chancellors are getting raises the size of a faculty member salary times two while faculty have received a $750 payment to stay quiet last year. They took a 5 percent cut during the Bush recession and  have only gotten a 1 percent increase since. Retiring professors are finding starting salaries for replacements to be as much as $20,000 more than their current salaries. I have to wonder if these excessive salaries are derived from reduced faculty positions and stagnant faculty and staff wages. 

The North Carolina university system charges students a fee for recreation services. Those fees translate into millions of dollars that should be — and used to be — paid by the state. While the students are paying millions to the universities, the students who work on campus are paid minimum wage and are double taxed on their meal plans. Let’s all start driving around the North Carolina University campuses to protest our universities creating the same wealth gap as in much of corporate America. 

Furthermore, the movement to privatize our public education continues with BB&T placing “distinguished Libertarian” professor of Ayn Rand in the WCU School of Business while the Koch brothers use a Trojan Horse in the form of several million dollars for a Free Enterprise Center to potentially advance Libertarian principles. Will WCU take the 40 pieces of silver? 

The answer is affirmative, with the reasoning “we need the money.” The faculty senate voted against taking the grants. The state cuts funding and the free enterprise fanatics take advantage to further privatize public education. Will the new system president continue privatizing by using for-profit software giants to install e-learning and eliminating faculty positions to pay for the services?

Social justice is just as much an issue as minority students on many North Carolina campuses quietly talk about the abusive remarks they experience. Duke University students are actively engaged in the issue as are students and faculty at Appalachian State and UNC Chapel Hill. Isn’t it time students and faculty in our public school system from k-12 and higher education take the kind of action we witnessed at the University of Missouri? When the football team refused to play on Saturday, university leaders immediately made changes. The powerful listen when their sources of revenue are at risk. Anything less does not matter. How much change happened with the Moral Monday marches? How much happens with letters to the editor? The General Assembly is still up to its mischief. It has not changed because tax revenues are not threatened and business as usual has not been interrupted. 

Isn’t it time we the people of Western North Carolina become visible and take the kind of action that says “enough is enough” and motivates our leaders here to change?

Ron Robinson

Sylva