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Money spent on Pisgah House should be spent on the students
CHRISTINE GENDY
Opinion Staff Writer
cgendy@unca,edu
UNC Asheville plans on using
over $100,000 in discretionary
funds to pay for maintenance and
repairs on the chancellor’s house,
said Robby Russell, member of the
Board of Trustees. Updates on pri
vate bedrooms, washers and dry
ers, refrigerators and television sets
are on the list of changes the Pisgah
House will undergo. In addition to
these updates, repairs to the deck
and paint on the interior walls will
be completed, said David Todd, as
sociate vice chancellor for campus
operations.
This topic was discussed in the
Board of Trustees meeting on Feb.
23 where they referred to these
changes as maintenance and re
pairs, but they sound more like
upgrades. When you consider the
house is less than 10 years old, ren
ovations at this time seem a bit un
necessary.
“I suppose if the geothermal unit
was damaged or there were drainer
issues I would be in support of it, as
poor upkeep on a home can cause
more expensive and severe damage
down the road. But if it were an ab
surd amount of money being spent
on landscaping you could claim it
‘inadequate’ to some sense,” said
Vanessa Jones, a sophomore chem
istry student.
However, Jones said she does
feel the chancellor should live
comfortably.
“I think it’s a good thing for the
chancellor to live comfortably. A
happy chancellor is a happy semes
ter, I suppose,” Jones said.
While I think everyone should
be able to live comfortably, some
are doing so beyond what is neces
sary. Mary K. Grant, our previous
chancellor, received a $40,000 pay
increase in 2015, increasing her
salary to $299,425, reported by The
News and Observer. Several other
chancellors in the UNC system re
ceived large bonuses the same year.
More recently, chancellors who
have been with their universities
for more than two years received
raises last year, making the highest
paid chancellors Randy Woodson
of NC State and Carol Folt of UNC
Chapel Hill. Chancellor Grant was
not included in this round of raises
since UNCA knew she would leave
her position soon after, reported
The Charlotte Observer.
It is not a far-fetched statement
to say the men and women hold
ing these positions are not strapped
for money. I think it is wrong that
these state employees received sig
nificant raises, while my father,
an engineer for the state, has not
received a raise in over a decade.
One could argue for a long time
which job is more important and
why certain positions grant more
raises than another, but it seems to
be another case of making the rich
richer and keeping the rest stagnant
in their place.
If the Pisgah House needs repairs
to enhance safety to the structure or
needs to be treated for something
dangerous the residents might be
exposed to, then sure, let us use the
university’s discretionary funds to
pay for it.
Since this type of maintenance is
not being done to the residence, I
feel as though the university should
not have a hand in paying for it.
The chancellor of this institution
and any chancellor of a higher edu
cation institution in North America
is more than able to afford the cost
of a new washer-dryer set and a
new television system themselves.
These are the costs the average
American citizen pays out-of-
pocket that the future chancellor
will get for free, on top of being
paid just under six times what the
average 45-54 year old will make
($50,024), according to Business
Insider.
Instead of using over $100,000 to
pay for “maintenance and repairs”
to the Pisgah House, the univer
sity could use that money to do
$100,000 in repairs to the campus
to benefit the entire student body
rather than a single family.
“If anything I think maybe some
of the bathrooms in a few halls
could stand to be updated. I think it
would also be interesting if UNCA
added some planted terraces to a
few of the buildings. It would add a
lot of beauty, housing for birds and
maybe even make up for some of
the forest fires we had last year,”
Jones said.
Renovations on some of the older
academic halls, such as Carmichael
and Owen, are set to begin soon.
Part of the funds allocated for the
house could instead go to this proj
ect or the project Jones suggested.
It is important to remember at
any university the primary group
whose interests should come first
are the students’ interests. It is the
students who pay tuition which al
lows the school to exist.
Universities are a place for edu
cation, which means they belong to
the students who receive it.
CHANCELLORS’ SALARIES IN NORTH CAROLINA INSTITUTIONS
Randy Woodson
North Carolina State University
$617,376
Carol L. Folt
UNC- Chapel Hill
$596,448
Cecil Staton
East Carolina State University
$450,000
Philip L. Dubois
UNC Charlotte
$450,000
Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr.
UNC Greensboro
$380,625
Harold L. Martin, Sr.
North Carolina A&T State Uni
versity
$365,400
Jose V. Sartarelli
UNC Wilmington
$355,250
Sheri Everts
Appalachian State University
$350,338
David O. Belcher
Western Carolina University
$345,313
James A. Anderson
Fayetteville State University
$329,875
Johnson O. Akinleye
North Carolina Central Univer
sity
$300,000
Mary K. Grant
UNC Asheville
$299,425
Elwood L. Robinson
Winston-Salem State University
$284,200
Robin Gary Cummings
UNC Pembroke
$284,200
Thomas E JI. Conway
Elizabeth City State University
$276,250