Mackinac retreat looks excessive in tough times
Tweet
I read with embarrassment the MSU Board of Trustees’ attempts to reason a two-day business retreat to Mackinac Island’s prestigious Grand Hotel in Trustees go to Mackinac to discuss future of university (SN 7/30). Recharging in five-star luxurious comfort at taxpayer expense — especially in a time of economic recession — doesn’t demonstrate any urgency in tackling the problems they themselves outlined. It also isn’t in keeping with the apparent mission of the trip to “find a way to keep tuition down, so these kids can go to school” during a budget crisis.
Had the MSU Board of Trustees needed a work “retreat” to discuss changes to the university’s crumbling and outdated residence halls, maybe a better alternative to staying at the Grand Hotel this week would have been to “retreat” into one of the dorms themselves. Or even better, how about a free weekend in Spartan Village? It’s hard to imagine the trustees dwelling on the insulting conditions of MSU’s slum-like housing options while they rush to make their tee time after brunch on the veranda.
Trustee Melanie Foster stated that the retreat was about “enriching the student experience.” The only “enrichment” I see are the Board of Trustees’ dinner options in The Jockey Club dining hall. At least they didn’t ask some incoming freshmen to carry their luggage.
Charles Scheer
criminal justice graduate student
Commentary
Add your $0.02, go to the comment form or follow the comment feed
Reality
(07/31/08 8:23pm)Report
“It’s hard to imagine the trustees dwelling on the insulting conditions of MSU’s slum-like housing ..” Nor should they. They are business men and women who have established themselves. Business folk who run multi million and billion dollar companies don’t meet at shitty locations, regardless of how the company is doing—that’s just business. Charles, maybe if you understood networking you’d understand. But networking doesn’t happen in a roach motel with 40’s and cheap wine.
huh
(07/31/08 9:02pm)Report
Charles understands that all business majors are douche bags. Plain and simple, you assholes talk the talk, talk the talk, talk some more, smirk, and take your multi-millionaire dollar severance packages for failing companies. You people are scum, you wheelers and dealers. When America falls, you asinine pieces of shit fall too despite your cockiness.
common sense
(07/31/08 11:55pm)Report
Does dubya really need Air Force One?
Chris
(08/01/08 8:17am)Report
Reality, what kind of “networking” goes on at a board retreat? Please.
The board could have gone to the University owned Manor House at Kellogg Biological Station or the MSU owned Brook Lodge. Look them both up, they would have provided the same sort of environment at a much, much lower cost to the U.
You did hit one nail on the head, you just didn’t know it. Universities are now being run as businesses, and that is a major problem.
San
(08/01/08 9:46am)Report
The stated purpose of the trip was to address a fiscal crisis. Taking a trip to the Grand Hotel for that stated purpose is inconsistent and arrogant. You don’t have a vegetarian conference at Steak & Ale, nor should you have a retreat dealing with a financial emergency at the Grand Hotel. Of course, no one at MSU thinks this way, thus the financial crisis.
Rob S.
(08/01/08 5:01pm)Report
This reminds me of a scene in a movie, where a kid is chastized for not eating his food in a restaurant with the reminder “there are kids starving in Africa” His response was, “So what? You wanna send them my fries?”
So what if the MSU trustees did their retreat at the Grand Hotel? That’s what executives do and the kinds of places they go, regardless of the state of the economy. Would them gathering at the Kellogg Center make a difference to all of those poor wage slaves down in Detroit?
Or is it just the animosity of the “lower class” towards the “privileged”—if yourself or a friend got a free planning trip sponsored by their company up to MacIs, would you be complaining then?
Leave it to the State News to just stir up the pot and rile the disadvantaged classes over nothing.