Glassman makes difference Perry could not

Staff Editorial

In the words of the great LeBron James, “It’s about damn time.”

It really is. We can finally say Eastern has a president who is devoting himself to the university’s wellbeing and not just playing the part of the campus grandpa.

We all know how loved former president Bill Perry was, and he was surely a good person, just not a good president.

President David Glassman came to campus this summer and has since been footing the bill left by Perry.

It is as if Perry built a zoo and decided to leave the year before all the feces compromised the structural integrity of the surrounding walls.

Eastern now has more than a president in Glassman.

We have a leader.

We have someone who is not afraid to hold others accountable for their actions.

Glassman has made tougher decisions to help Eastern in the time it took him to open the door to his office for the first time than Perry did in eight years.

Glassman quickly became the face of layoffs happening this year, but it is something being done in an effort to keep the university operating.

Perry left Glassman a budget deficit of $13 million during an already tough time for Eastern, not to mention the budget impasse Springfield is causing.

The State Senate Higher Education Committee chaired by Sen. Pat McGuire held a budget hearing in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union, and Glassman let the committee know what is up.

He told the state senators how badly we need the state’s budget impasse to be resolved as quickly as possible.

Glassman estimates the doomsday date for Eastern to be sometime next semester.

If our state government does not do its job, Eastern could shut down the semester some of us are supposed to graduate.

Why is this even a thing? People making more money than probably most people you know are failing to do their job and jeopardizing what is probably the biggest thing a lot of us are trying to accomplish this year.

Eastern is a state funded school and right now the state is weakening your education, weakening your future and diminishing the value of your diploma.

Most of us came to school with an understanding there is a sort of commitment from the state.

Glassman stuck his neck out for you.

“Our quality of students is strong and will remain strong,” he said. “The state needs to honor that commitment to those students.”

Gov. Bruce Rauner needs to get something done.

Glassman is doing his job. We are doing our jobs.

Now it is time for the state to do its job.

The daily editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Daily Eastern News.