31 January 2012

Dear President Benson

Dear President Benson:

I read the article in today’s Daily Camera in which you defended the raises awarded to the top administrators at CU.  I’ve been an employee of the university for ten years now.  My take home pay is currently $400 LESS than it was four years ago.  The 3% one time non-base building “raise” I received last year was more a slap in the face than anything. 

In your interview you state, "I've got to pay for good people, I want quality. You're not going to have quality if you don't have quality people working for you."  Every year during my annual evaluation, I’ve been scored in the highest tier, yet as a member of the classified staff I’m not seeing the “pay for good people” that seems to be a given among the faculty and upper administration.

I understand that classified staff are in a different job classification than faculty or professional exempt; however, I am still an employee of the University of Colorado and would appreciate it if the upper administration, including yourself, would be more supportive of our hard work and dedication. 

Somehow I don’t think you, or any others in the upper administration have a realistic appreciation of what it’s like to be a single parent with a child in college, a mortgage, a car payment, utility bills, grocery bills, medical bills, etc. trying to live on $1900 a month.  Chancellor DiStefano’s raise alone is $10,000 more than my total gross salary.  I hope that gives you some perspective on my situation.

Kind Regards, 

Ruth Covington