Proving once again that bureaucrats have incredibly thin skin (and that blogs are driving the political debate in this state), Clemson University President James Barker sent out a mass e-mail this afternoon to the entire Clemson community responding to our story from earlier today about the rampant administrative growth at his University.
A similar e-mail was reportedly fired off to state lawmakers, who are currently debating the 2009-10 state budget.
While Barker’s e-mail did not specifically dispute the figures we published (all of which were taken from an exclusive report prepared by a former Clemson professor) he blasted the report as “incomplete and misleading.”
“Where there has been growth in academic administration, it is primarily because we added new programs and services such as the Academic Success Center, which has helped our students retain their LIFE scholarships and improved retention and graduation rates,” Barker says in his e-mail. “Other new programs requiring administration are Creative Inquiry and the highly successful Bridge to Clemson program. Compliance with increasing state, federal and accreditation regulations can also require additional administrative staff.”
Barker’s e-mail leaves unaddressed the growth figures for the Office of the Provost and the Office of University Advancement, but he claims that all but one of the staff additions in his office came as a result of “reorganization,” not the creation of new positions.
Over the past three years, the President’s Office, Office of the Provost and Office of University Advancement have seen their combined personnel budgets jump from $15,258,255 to $27,153,248 – a 77% increase.
Barker’s e-mail also fails to address misleading public statements he has made concerning Clemson’s overall budget – nor did it address why the daughter of a University Trustee working in his office has received double-digit raises in each of the past two years.
By BIN News Editorial Staff February 18, 2009 at 8:10 pm
sic(k) willie,
You’re great at f@rting in church and leaving early. It’d be refreshing if once in a while you’d stick with a story. Prove your allegations.
Prove them, or shut up.
Prove your bogus allegation a Midlands’ elected official has a Strom problem; prove your wacko allegation the gub’ner paid off the family of a “poor little black girl” in Beaufort; prove your silly claim of a SLED “beat down squad.”
Clemson, take a lesson. Ignore sic(k) willie. He’ll go away. Eventually. He is like a f@rt in church. Give his stink a moment, and it evaporates.
BIN News Editorial Staff
Go Tigers!
By Tiger1 February 18, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Whatever. We beat Carolina in football and basketball so far this year.
By Clemson2009 February 18, 2009 at 10:09 pm
How ironic — Sic Willie is a University of South Carolina graduate, yet he is an expert on all that is Clemson. I wonder why any other media outlet in South Carolina have not published something about this [insert sarcasm here] shocking scandal….?
By Keep public education money away from colleges February 18, 2009 at 10:24 pm
When government subsidizes something , we invariably get more of it .
College education is not a necessity – we do need our citizens to read and write – but anyone wishing to pursue higher education can do it on their own dime.
Tell our state legislators to stop sending money to these colleges. Focus on kindergarten through high school public education and let these big university presidents figure out how to make money the old fashioned way .
By Clemson Grad February 18, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Normally, I think BIN is an absolute idoit, but I am starting to agree with him (her?). Wil stick with a story and quit throwing pot shots and walking away. I read this site daily and in the past I have found it informative and appreciated the insight into our state’s inner circle, but your recent rants without any substance make me question your credibility.
Are you “breaking” real stories or just throwing darts and hoping to stay relative?
By ...perennially wonderin'... February 18, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Clemson Grad,
The English teacher in me begs the question…
Did your leaving off the second “l” in Will have any deliberate significance?
If there is one thing I have learned in this state — it is that the good old boys like to deal in body parts…eyes (i’s), teeth (t’s), legs (l’s), etc.
Or — it could have always been an oversight.
By fitsnews February 18, 2009 at 11:35 pm
CG-
We bust on the University of South Carolina and its scams all the time, to say nothing of the 2-year berating we’ve been administering to its crappy powder puff squad.
And give Ray Greenberg down at MUSC a call when you get a minute. Ask him if we’ve been soft in exposing his shenanigans.
As for “rants without any substance,” we take that as a compliment. Of course on higher ed issues we’ll put our reporting up against the lazy MSM and their incessant bemoaning of “budget cuts” that don’t exist any day of the week.
You may not like what we’ve got to say, but at least we’re not writing scripted higher ed commercials like the Anderson Independent and Greenville News which ignore the fact that ALL OF THESE SCHOOLS’ BUDGETS ARE GOING UP.
C ’09, you ask why those MSM outlets don’t cover this stuff? We don’t know – ask them. And then ask them how their subscription numbers are faring. All we can say is the fact they’re not covering it is probably another reason why we’re becoming the new MSM and the old MSM is going extinct.
Our goal is to get at the truth of why college costs twice as much today as it did seven years ago, and why our state spends so much more of its general funds to pay for something the vast majority of its citizens can no longer afford. If you don’t like the opinions we express in doing so, you’re always just a mouse click away from not having to read them.
Oh, and it’s “relevant,” not “relative,” but our bet is that President Barker has a fairly solid grasp of the distinction tonight.
Seriously, if we need some free horticultural pointers we’ll be sure to give you two a call, but for now we recommend you both get back to milking “Bessie” together and fawning over Dabo Swinney.
-FITS
By Silence the Noise February 19, 2009 at 9:16 am
hey BINdick…..I’m fairly sure the fact that Barker had to put the spin on Will’s truth proves his allegations.
you’re such an idiot. its beginning to move beyond annoying and become hilarious. keep up the entertainment.
By CUAlum85 February 23, 2009 at 9:10 am
A bit dog squeals the loudest = Barker!! Ol Green Tom is rolling in his grave as the crap Barker has done TO the University built to educate the people of SC!
BIN should be a “Has BIN” on this issue! I’ll keep up the IPTAY and Clemson Fund IN SPITE of Barker because maybe he’ll be that fart in church at least I pray he will be!!
By CUgrad02 February 28, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Some of this information is very misleading. For example, the reason for Advancement’s tremendous growth is attributed to the transfer of college and unit development personnel to Advancement along with their salaries. Numbers can be very misleading without the facts behind the numbers.