How shall I begin? Ladies? Gentlemen? Pointyheads?
Our political leaders have failed you. You're going to have to step up. There is no one else. Now is the time.
Today we're going to talk about pressure point politics, and how to engage. This whole thing is a lot like physics. For every action, there is a reaction. Just as predictable. Sometimes just as explosive. (The early point here is this: keep allowing yourselves to be doormats and folks will keep wiping their feet on you.)
Before we get into the meat of the issue, I suppose I should give you my I-feel-your-pain spiel. Okay. I feel your pain. I really do. Honestly. And your rage. Now climb down out of your ivory towers and let's talk game plan.
Like a broken record (and so many broken promises) you're again under the gun to submit a plan, or several plans, to somehow cut your own budgets. (Makes me think of the times my mama made me get my own switches.)
And you're right, the 'what-ifs' you've been given are arbitrary. You feel hurt and abused. There is rage. Justifiable. Maybe bewilderment. Nobody seems to be listening, let alone comprehending. Maybe feelings of helplessness drift in? Understandable, yes, but banish those thoughts. You've got more leverage than you can possibly imagine. Hold on. We'll get to that.
There is not one among you who would advise your teams to play to their weakness. Yet, that is exactly how you approach political issues like the budget. And the budget is a political issue. Make no mistake about that.
The first thing to do is to know, to understand that weakness. You only have one. You are divided. As in, divided and conquered. Legislatively, you are pitted one against the other. Sure, some days you sing in chorus to some abstract notion of "higher education," but the plain fact is that when it comes to money, it's every dog for himself. And the big dogs always out-bark the little ones.
This is an aside, but one worth noting. State neglect is driving our flagship public universities into becoming de facto private institutions. The out-of-staters can, and happily do, pay higher tuitions that the legislature should be buying down for Virginia kids. Look up the percentage of state support for UVa's undergraduate program. You don't think the New Jersey fat cats love it?
Okay, back to hardball. Where I want to focus your attention is on your potential strength. If you act together, you will instantly become the most potent political force in this commonwealth. You see, collectively, your tendrils reach into every household in Virginia.
Think about that for a moment. Your students. Your faculty. Your staffs. Your individual communities, and the businesses and citizens that make them up. Your vendors. Your alumni. Your associations. Your athletic programs. Your boosters. The numbers run up exponentially.
Therein is to be found the almost magical strength you have. Nothing motivates politicians like exponential numbers. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Having strength is one thing. Knowing how to deploy it is something else. How so, you say? You have an unparalleled opportunity staring you in the face at this moment.
The state has put you under the gun to get your own switches. That's fine. Don't do it by laying off your staffs. Don't do it by gutting your departments. Don't do it by raising your fees and putting your degrees further out of reach of hard working Virginia families. Don't do it by dismantling what you've worked so hard to build. You've already done that…last year. You see where that got you. Don't do it again. Don't buy into your own diminishment. Don't buy into this idiotic notion that we're somehow going to shrink to greatness.
What's the power play on this one? How do you expose the pressure points. Easy. Send your kids home. And your faculty. And your staffs. And go home yourselves. Don't fire anybody. Just put your programs on furlough. The budget writers want a five percent cut? Shut down until you've saved enough to meet that arbitrary 'what-if'. Eleven percent? Same thing. They approved the spending to begin with. Make them approve the cuts that are being demanded. They want 15 percent? No problem. What's that? Twenty-seven days? You say, 'School's out. See you in a month.'
Put their fingerprints all over a few hundred thousand kids you send home, put them in the glare of national, and even international, media coverage and see how long it will take the folks we've elected to lead this state to get up off their backsides and do just that -- lead. (God, there's a thought! What a novel idea!)
There is some downside to this strategy. Be warned: the speed with which they move will blur your vision and make you dizzy.
Copyright 2002