commentaries

Your first task Mr. Kailer is to convince serious U people like myself that you are actually capable of letting one of the senior administrators at the U retire without showering him/her with tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in special deals paid with our money. Until you have shown me that one bit of backbone I will stay in the "presidents at the U are big talkers who do not give a damn about the taxpayers other than as suckers" camp.

The U has its problems. There is no question that some of its administrators have either abused their positions and/or given themselves and each other overly generous compensation packages at the same time as other valuable employees were losing their jobs due to budget cuts. That said, the U as a whole has been a huge asset to the state of Minnesota. It has created cutting edge medicine in our state, produced new crops, pioneered new forms of energy production and (most importantly) graduated millions of college students who went on to start companies, become doctors, teachers, writers, scientists and just general all-around responsible citizens. Human talent is what makes Minnesota a great state, and the U of M has been the main incubator for this talent. We need it to thrive if we want the state to thrive.

I am a long-time staff person at the U and I am very excited about the fresh new direction President Kaler is taking the university. The U is an incredible asset to the state of Minnesota.

I find it hard to believe that this guy is still allowed to write anything for public consumption after the Maturi deal and coverup. I give all the credit in the world to the fine students, faculty and staff at the U, but this guy has got to go because he has so severely damaged the U's reputation with his handouts. Not a penny from me, that's for sure.

Kaler thinks a 3.5% tuition increase is a good thing. That's because tuition increases in the previous years were so extravagant. A 3.5% increase is still higher than current inflation. The U has become an over staffed, over paid, self serving bloated bureaucracy. Bruininks was overly generous with the tax payers money. I haven't seen any sign that Kaler is willing to make the tough decisions needed to get the U back on track.