Dear the OU community

Today, I want to start by talking about some of the recent blunders the administration has done since my time here as a freshman. Firstly, President Pescovitz’s house tour video had some of the worst optics I have ever seen from a place of higher education. It should be studied by researchers to see how someone can be so out of touch during a time of crisis. This is the equivalent of the president of the United States during wartime saying “Hey guys I just bought new leg warmers for the entire office staff and I’m also cutting the budget to the military” It makes no sense, especially during a global crisis when inflation is on the rise, gas are prices much higher than they’ve been in a while, and tuition has been raised without any just cause. I had to walk to work for 2 years to make enough money to go here while taking care of a disabled parent, and this is how my money is being spent? Our tuition could not have been invested elsewhere, like fixing the printers around campus? Or paying employees a decent wage at the start of the semester? Keep in mind, I managed to learn about all these issues within 3 months, that has to be a new record, and who knows what else is wrong with OU or what people who have been here longer have seen.
Before I go, recently someone came to me about the issues she has had with the school. For safety reasons she will be referred to as Zhen for this story. The story is abbreviated heavily and goes as follows: “I had to jump through a variety of hoops to even get into OU. Firstly their communication between them and the VA was abhorrent and slow. You would think during a pandemic they would have better communication. Even worse, they put it on the students during the process instead of actually communicating with the VA, making the process 100x more complex than it needed to be. So the fact the president of OU even made that video is appalling and really just hurts when it was even a struggle to come to this school in the first place”. It never ceases to amaze me how much the people who supposedly “care about the well being of their students” cannot even help students transfer to their school. Hopefully whoever reads this will see the blatant hypocrisy in our university’s actions and help change our campus to one that actually benefits the students, because, right now, Oakland University doesn’t deserve our money if things like “towel warmers” are being bought for the upper class administrators on our dime.

Link to video that caused this letter to be written: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjYnUcOXE9c&t=305s
As a reminder, the OUSC is working to make college more affordable. To help us in that goal please sign this petition to help eliminate high cost textbooks www.change.org/OUTrashTheTextbooks

-Signed, OUSC Legislator Tyler Gallagher

Letters to the editor can be submitted to [email protected].