Academic Senate addresses Bonamego buyout, hate incidents during final 2018 meeting
President Robert Davies speaks to Academic Senate during the final meeting of the fall semester on Dec. 4 in Pearce 127.
Academic Senate's Dec. 4 meeting served as a platform to discuss the costs of Division I athletics and incidents of intolerance on campus.
Included in former football coach John Bonamego's 2017 contract extension is a $1.125 million buyout. About a year after the extension, Bonamego was fired on Nov. 23. It was later reported by Central Michigan Life that Bonamego's buyout is $834,000. The former coach already received $400,000 on Dec. 1, 2018. He will also be given $300,000 on Feb. 1, 2019 and $134,000 on March 1, 2019.
Senator Benjamin Heumann, of geography and environmental studies, who took issue with the contract buyout illustrated "what other things cost (more than) $1 million?" to comment on the cost of DI athletics.
Heumann crafted a list of expenditures after evaluating CMU's 2017-2018 budget. Among the programs he found:
• Annual operations at the Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion cost $1.3 million
• Academic Advising services cost $1.4 million
• Every computer purchased for CMU totaled $1.1 million
• Operations for the entire Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences cost $1.6 million
Heumann also pointed out CMU experienced a budget deficit of $20 million in March 2017, making him wonder how the university is able to afford such "million dollar changes" less than two years later.
President Robert Davies said the money for the transition to hiring new head coach Jim McElwain with a five-year, $400,000 base salary is paid strictly by projected football revenue. Senator Michael Mamp, of the department of human environmental studies, questioned if such costs are justifiable.
"I wonder if we've hit a point in our time as a university (that) we should have a greater investigation on the value of Division I athletics to our school and what that costs to us," Mamp said.
The nature of American society will always have an immense value of athletics, Davies said, whether he agrees with it or not.
"I'm not going to provide an answer of if it's the right thing or if it's the wrong thing, but there is a very important role (for) athletics," Davies said. "My grandmother used to always say you are compared to who you play with, it is important to be (interested in the) circumstances of who we are playing with and who we are being with."
During his address to the Senate, Davies was asked to provide further insight on the Nov. 20 incident of discrimination against a transgender student who resides in Robinson Hall.
The Nov. 20 incident was the second of its kind this semester. A racist message was written on a whiteboard in Sweeney Hall and targeted a group of African American women. White nationalist propaganda was also found distributed across campus.
"Each instance needs to be discussed with the individual and each instance is a unique response," Davies said. "Let it be known, in all cases the (relevant) offices are working with those immediately."
Some senators expressed concern that CMU waited until after evidence from each of the incidents were posted on social media before officially responding. Davies said it is important for all members of the university community to be more wary of online outlets.
"We have to be mindful that having a strong response invites others (and) that needs to be weighed into the circumstances," Davies said, explaining that reasons to not go public are primarily set to further preserve the safety and well-being of the affected students and communities.
Davies said Patriot Front, a Texas-based white nationalist group exhibited on the mentioned propaganda, actually thanked CMU for the "free publicity."
Additional duties completed by the Senate were:
• Approving the expected graduations to take place during the December 2018 commencement ceremony
• Approving motion stating undergraduates both on campus and globally must complete nine of 30 credit hours through the university to receive a CMU degree • Provost Michael Gealt will step down from the university on Jun. 30 and said, "those people who were my mentors became or were provosts. So being a provost (has) just been a fantastic experience and I expect the next six months will be lots of fun."
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