Congratulations Sacramento State students, you have just been selected as a participant in the Raise Your Fees Constantly game show! The first item up for bid is an out-of-reach education (Ooo!). Yes, as your fees go up along with the cost of everything else in California, your education is being put farther out of reach for you.

Oh wait, it’s the bonus round. Your school president is not only afraid to stand up to those responsible for raising your fees, but he is also going to raise outside funds to build things that won’t improve the quality of your education! How does that sound folks?

This is no game show; this is reality at Sac State. The CSU Board of Trustees recently approved a salary increase of 28 of its highest executives, including our own president, Alexander Gonzalez who now makes $295,000 – a $29,775 raise. Sac State students should also expect another 10 percent increase in student fees for the 2008-09 academic school year. This increase, if approved by the trustees, would be the sixth increase in seven years. These increases have outpaced inflation by about 60 percent, so it’s hard for students to understand how CSU executives get pay raises while our education costs skyrocket. Furthermore, Gonzalez has voiced no opposition to CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed or the trustees when student fees are raised.

It would not stop the increase obviously, but it would make his students feel like he cared about them. Furthermore, Gonzalez has shown very little remorse or atonement for the list of blunders and snafus he has been responsible for or involved in on campus. There has been no accountability. A chancellor and a school president, like a general in a battlefield or a coach on a playing field, must hold him or herself responsible for the wins and the losses.

We don’t want the emotionless comments expressing “regret” and “sympathy” for the students who have to pay more for less education. If these administrators truly cared about students and their professors, they should be talking directly to us, not through the safety of prepared press releases or pre-screened questions thrown into a speech. If they want to rebuild the trust of students and faculty, then they need to act as if they want that trust. What is preventing Chancellor Reed or any other trustee from reaching out to students on the various CSU campuses and holding direct discussions with them? Why can’t Gonzalez, instead of hiding in his renovated office and in Java City owner Tom Weborg’s wallet, hold a discussion session with students, asking them what they think he should be doing to improve their education?

Gonzalez needs to acknowledge and accept responsibility for problems at Sac State. He should go to classrooms and talk with students about what he is doing to make sure every dollar possible is not being cut from academic affairs. He shouldn’t disregard a no-confidence vote of the faculty. He should be doing everything in his power to restore that confidence. If automobile windshields were being made of metal, wouldn’t the plant operator where the cars are built ensure that everything possible was done to fix the problem?

It wouldn’t make sense for her or him to add an espresso machine as a new feature on the car as a solution. Gonzalez and the trustees are driving us blindly toward some unknown path. Meanwhile, they’re hoping we won’t notice by raising millions of dollars for cosmetic upgrades that boost visibility and notoriety but won’t help students achieve their academic and career goals.

Scott Allen can be reached at [email protected].