Chapman doesn’t get it
After it was revealed that NDSU President Joseph Chapman spent $22,000 on a trip to Washington DC, Chapman has decided to resign. Even as he is going out the door, his comment was; “..whenever I do anything, I always do it with the best interest of the institution in mind”. How can he say that spending $22,000 to attend a Presidential Inauguration is in the best interest of the university? Even if it was in his words, “a tremendous opportunity to represent NDSU”, there is no reason why he had to bring his entire family on a chartered jet and staying in $4300 hotel rooms. He could have taken a lesson from his peer Robert Kelley, UND President, who spent $2175 for the same trip.
In addition to the family vacation to DC, Chapman has overseen cost overruns in excess of $1 million on the University Presidential Palace. As if that weren’t bad enough, with an annual salary in excess of $400,000 he just couldn’t seem to stay within budget on his $35,000 discretionary spending account. And now he says he is resigning because “it just isn’t fun anymore”. Well, cry me a river!!
The truth of the matter is that Chapman, like many other politicians in all levels of government, just doesn’t get it. He is an employee of the people of the State of North Dakota. As our employee, one of his primary responsibilities is to utilize our very limited resources in the most effective manner, to get the maximum return on our investment. Not to use our money and our facilities as if they were his own private kingdom.
Whether it is a university president wasting our money, Senators who schedule “listening forums” yet don’t listen, Congressmen who completely avoid their constituents so as not to hear their concerns, or County officials who think that they should be exempt from courthouse security rules, it is clearly evident that this problem of government official elitism permeates through every level of County, State, and Federal government.
We all need to make our voices heard loudly and clearly as we put these elitists in their place. For those of you elitists who happen to be reading this letter, I will state this as plainly as possible. You are an employee of the PEOPLE. If you cannot grasp that fact, it is time for you to find a different line of work! Take Chapman’s cue and start another career.
