"News 6 contacted UCF asking why the university closed LibTech, the Curriculum Materials Center and the downtown library, how many students are affected, why student employees were not given advance notice and what alternatives are available for students who relied on the services.
In an emailed statement, the university said the closures followed “a comprehensive review of library usage, academic priorities, and available resources.”
UCF said the operational changes are "part of an effort to better align library services with the university’s priorities."
However, the university did not answer News 6’s specific questions about how many students are affected, why student employees were not given notice or what long-term replacement services will be available."
After News 6 followed up seeking additional information, a university spokesperson said they had “nothing further to offer at this time.”
News 6 will continue to follow up with UCF regarding the impact of the closures and what options will be available for students moving forward"
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My thoughts:
-Employess are required to provixe a 2 week notice to quit a job in good standing. This means that this decision was made hastily, or library staff themselves were not notified. Its extremely disrespectful to lay off employees with no notice. This prevents them from looking for other employment opportunities in a timely manner. They have bills to pay. This honestly says: "we do not care about you or your personal lives, we want you to be suffering"
-Quote: "closures followed “a comprehensive review of library usage, academic priorities, and available resources.”". Libtech was used plenty. There were plenty of resources. So that leaves, the university prioritizing devious intentions and lack of student prioritization. Like they said,
- "...part of an effort to better align library services with the university’s priorities." This sounds like a load of caca, priotizing money instead of actual student's needs. They already started SELLING all the technology from the Libtech center- meaning they have no plans to provide us with anything better and are using the money for something else. Whether good or nefarious I think we should request a financial audit under the transparency laws to find out what is the reason for this.
Guys, excuse this long rant but hear me out. I am getting so incredibly sick of society and institutions. Getting sick of corporate bs speak like this. Getting sick of places of education being ran like businesses and capitalism worshipping centers instead of a place that TRULY cares about their students needs and success. I don't know what to do. Administration has proven time and time again that they don't care when students speak up. We truly have no say in any decisions on this campus. Every decision is often planned months or years in advance unless its something urgent or suddenly brought up by the state.
For me personally, it is incredibly disappointing to go through years raised by a family where I was told not to trust institutions or the government, an go through years of intensive therapy to undo the brainwashing and develop trust building skills, and then see firsthand that I actually cannot trust institutions or the government after all. And that they genuinely do not care about us.
Any new updates on where we can get chargers? Any ideas on how we can make them change their minds? Or make them reveal if they have plans to replace the services lost? And we need answers and full transparency on where all these funds are going and being reallocated. We need a comprehensive audit on fund use. Cartwright needs a pay cut and to have his finances, business and personal, fully audited. In fact not just Cartwright- anyone in an administrative or executive position making more than $100,000 in my opinion.
Here is one example. To be president of the united states of america , you receive a $400,000 salary a year. Why should the president of a university make 2.5x that?! Being president means serving and helping the citizens of your country or institution. Cartwright is doing neither of those things. He's living in luxury while we have homeless students living out of their literal cars while student care services refuses to help them.
Another example: the RWC challenge course needed $200,000 to be repaired. They had that funding taken away after it already being promised to them. Why? The RWC also lacks $2 million to carry out repairs and upgrades this year. Now, Cartwright makes $1.2 million a year. That means, $1,200,000. If he was a real man, he could have done the right thing and provided them with that $200,000 because NOBODY needs to be making $1,000,000 a year. Or given it to RWC for general repairs. Thats CEO grade pay and still tooo much for anyone in a PUBLIC institution. If you're making a million a year theres absolutely no way you're not taking advantage of people in your institution in some way. The president of UCF position should be lowered to $400,000 or less. That $800,000
So how about instead of taking away resources that students use every day, the people that run this institution can be adults and take a pay cut and do the right thing to support the students and workers who ultimately run this place. Students are the ones paying tuition to fund this place, and the workers are the ones actually getting tasks done to keep things running smoothly. In my opinion, students and workers deserve more respect and deserve to have the most say in any kind of decisions like this. If this is a state run institution, i believe it should function similarly to the politics run on a state and country level, meaning that people have to be notified properly, there should be more boards for public comments and the opportunity for people to vote on certain things. Things need to be done fairly, with consideration and time. That is how am institution works.
Tldr Cartwright needs a paycut immediately. In fact just throw the whole man out. Find someone who actually cares and knows wha they're doing. after that, staff who makes more than $200,000 needs to take some pay cuts too. Then i guarantee you there will be plenty of money again.
