I hope the pointy heads that run ASU and GHSU (MCG, dammit) are smart enough to take a good, hard look at the royal mess the City of Augusta and Richmond County made when they consolidated and avoid their mistakes like an airborne contagion.
I will provide a bit of a history lesson on how all that went wrong in a moment, but first, I had to chuckle a bit when I saw that my friend Sylvia Cooper did not know about this thing until last week, as she wrote in her City Ink column Sunday.Trust me, she was not alone:
“The movers and shakers are predicting Augusta will become a boomtown once Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University are joined into one institution of higher learning with GHSU President Ricardo Azziz officiating.Some ordinary folks don’t know what to think because we didn’t know a thing about it until University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby and members of the Board of Regents came to town for a private meeting with local officials last week and ended up springing it on us like a shotgun wedding.”
The first word of this proposed merger that was posted or mentioned in a public sense was on The Austin Rhodes Show Facebook page, on September 26, 2011, and of course, on my radio show.The Augusta Chronicle did a brief follow up on it 16 days later.
This week, ASU Student Government Senator Amanda Bryant posted the following message on the Augusta Today Facebook page:
“As an ASU student and senator, I did hear about this a while back…However, as a senator, I am not allowed to speak about certain issues until we know all the details. This did come about pretty quick though. I do not like this merger one bit. I would like to hear some legit opinions on this matter. I do know that this may cause some possible layoffs and a possible raise in tuition. How can that be good?”
Hey ASU students…look at that.One of your elected reps says this plan was in the kitty before I first discussed it back in late September. This wasn’t a military secret; this was a reorganization of taxpayer-funded institutions.In other words, it is the biggest piece of the public’s business that can occur.
Why the conspiracy of silence on this thing?Why not start asking questions immediately?As far as I know, there is absolutely no requirement that student government representatives have to keep the biggest story in school history under their hats until the Board of Regents find the good grace to restore their power of speech.
ASU student government screwed the moose on this one.Big time.
I kinda miss the good old days when student government would swing down onbespeckled administrators telling them to keep “The Man’s” secrets from their fellow students.Oh well.
God knows I did my part.Over three months ago, no less.
Though this consolidation can be a good thing, if handled correctly, let’s hope they do not pry Charles Walker and Robin Williams from their jail cells to put the plan to paper.If they do, you might get passages like this, from the Augusta-Richmond County Consolidation Agreement:
“This (Consolidation) Act shall not result in and shall not be implemented to result in the termination of employment of any employees of Richmond County or the City of Augusta…”
That one little sub-sentence kept real savings from being realized by the merged governments for years.Only after a few bright folks (notably, Sheriff Ronnie Strength) identified a few terminations to be the result of “budget concerns” did they get away with eliminating wasteful duplication in the labor force.
When it comes to cost reductions and streamlining, may the Board of Regents be blessed with far more wisdom and intestinal fortitude than what was suffered by Augusta taxpayers.You Might Also Like:
How Not to Consolidate
How Not to Consolidate
By Austin Rhodes
January 12, 2012
I hope the pointy heads that run ASU and GHSU (MCG, dammit) are smart enough to take a good, hard look at the royal mess the City of Augusta and Richmond County made when they consolidated and avoid their mistakes like an airborne contagion.
I will provide a bit of a history lesson on how all that went wrong in a moment, but first, I had to chuckle a bit when I saw that my friend Sylvia Cooper did not know about this thing until last week, as she wrote in her City Ink column Sunday.Trust me, she was not alone:
“The movers and shakers are predicting Augusta will become a boomtown once Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University are joined into one institution of higher learning with GHSU President Ricardo Azziz officiating.Some ordinary folks don’t know what to think because we didn’t know a thing about it until University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby and members of the Board of Regents came to town for a private meeting with local officials last week and ended up springing it on us like a shotgun wedding.”
The first word of this proposed merger that was posted or mentioned in a public sense was on The Austin Rhodes Show Facebook page, on September 26, 2011, and of course, on my radio show.The Augusta Chronicle did a brief follow up on it 16 days later.
This week, ASU Student Government Senator Amanda Bryant posted the following message on the Augusta Today Facebook page:
“As an ASU student and senator, I did hear about this a while back…However, as a senator, I am not allowed to speak about certain issues until we know all the details. This did come about pretty quick though. I do not like this merger one bit. I would like to hear some legit opinions on this matter. I do know that this may cause some possible layoffs and a possible raise in tuition. How can that be good?”
Hey ASU students…look at that.One of your elected reps says this plan was in the kitty before I first discussed it back in late September. This wasn’t a military secret; this was a reorganization of taxpayer-funded institutions.In other words, it is the biggest piece of the public’s business that can occur.
Why the conspiracy of silence on this thing?Why not start asking questions immediately?As far as I know, there is absolutely no requirement that student government representatives have to keep the biggest story in school history under their hats until the Board of Regents find the good grace to restore their power of speech.
ASU student government screwed the moose on this one.Big time.
I kinda miss the good old days when student government would swing down onbespeckled administrators telling them to keep “The Man’s” secrets from their fellow students.Oh well.
God knows I did my part.Over three months ago, no less.
Though this consolidation can be a good thing, if handled correctly, let’s hope they do not pry Charles Walker and Robin Williams from their jail cells to put the plan to paper.If they do, you might get passages like this, from the Augusta-Richmond County Consolidation Agreement:
“This (Consolidation) Act shall not result in and shall not be implemented to result in the termination of employment of any employees of Richmond County or the City of Augusta…”
That one little sub-sentence kept real savings from being realized by the merged governments for years.Only after a few bright folks (notably, Sheriff Ronnie Strength) identified a few terminations to be the result of “budget concerns” did they get away with eliminating wasteful duplication in the labor force.
When it comes to cost reductions and streamlining, may the Board of Regents be blessed with far more wisdom and intestinal fortitude than what was suffered by Augusta taxpayers.You Might Also Like:
I hope the pointy heads that run ASU and GHSU (MCG, dammit) are smart enough to take a good, hard look at the royal mess the City of Augusta and Richmond County made when they consolidated and avoid their mistakes like an airborne contagion.
I will provide a bit of a history lesson on how all that went wrong in a moment, but first, I had to chuckle a bit when I saw that my friend Sylvia Cooper did not know about this thing until last week, as she wrote in her City Ink column Sunday.Trust me, she was not alone:
“The movers and shakers are predicting Augusta will become a boomtown once Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University are joined into one institution of higher learning with GHSU President Ricardo Azziz officiating.Some ordinary folks don’t know what to think because we didn’t know a thing about it until University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby and members of the Board of Regents came to town for a private meeting with local officials last week and ended up springing it on us like a shotgun wedding.”
The first word of this proposed merger that was posted or mentioned in a public sense was on The Austin Rhodes Show Facebook page, on September 26, 2011, and of course, on my radio show.The Augusta Chronicle did a brief follow up on it 16 days later.
This week, ASU Student Government Senator Amanda Bryant posted the following message on the Augusta Today Facebook page:
“As an ASU student and senator, I did hear about this a while back…However, as a senator, I am not allowed to speak about certain issues until we know all the details. This did come about pretty quick though. I do not like this merger one bit. I would like to hear some legit opinions on this matter. I do know that this may cause some possible layoffs and a possible raise in tuition. How can that be good?”
Hey ASU students…look at that.One of your elected reps says this plan was in the kitty before I first discussed it back in late September. This wasn’t a military secret; this was a reorganization of taxpayer-funded institutions.In other words, it is the biggest piece of the public’s business that can occur.
Why the conspiracy of silence on this thing?Why not start asking questions immediately?As far as I know, there is absolutely no requirement that student government representatives have to keep the biggest story in school history under their hats until the Board of Regents find the good grace to restore their power of speech.
ASU student government screwed the moose on this one.Big time.
I kinda miss the good old days when student government would swing down onbespeckled administrators telling them to keep “The Man’s” secrets from their fellow students.Oh well.
God knows I did my part.Over three months ago, no less.
Though this consolidation can be a good thing, if handled correctly, let’s hope they do not pry Charles Walker and Robin Williams from their jail cells to put the plan to paper.If they do, you might get passages like this, from the Augusta-Richmond County Consolidation Agreement:
“This (Consolidation) Act shall not result in and shall not be implemented to result in the termination of employment of any employees of Richmond County or the City of Augusta…”
That one little sub-sentence kept real savings from being realized by the merged governments for years.Only after a few bright folks (notably, Sheriff Ronnie Strength) identified a few terminations to be the result of “budget concerns” did they get away with eliminating wasteful duplication in the labor force.
When it comes to cost reductions and streamlining, may the Board of Regents be blessed with far more wisdom and intestinal fortitude than what was suffered by Augusta taxpayers.You Might Also Like:
Posted in Austin