Letter to Provost from CRRB

Dear Provost Lariviere:
I send the attached letter on behalf of the Committee on Retirees'
Rights and Benefits. Should you have any questions I would be pleased to respond.
Most Sincerely,
George Crawford, Chair, CRRB

April 23, 2009
Dr. Richard W. Lariviere, Provost
Strong Hall
The University of Kansas
Campus

Dear Provost Lariviere:

The purpose of this letter is to convey the sense of the Committee on Retirees' Rights and Benefits (CRRB) regarding your April 1, 2009 declaration of intent to temporarily suspend the issuance to faculty/staff retirees of complimentary tickets to certain Lied Center performances. As you know, CRRB is the governance committee charged with looking after the rights and benefits of retirees to improve their experience and foster their participation in the life of the university. The committee appreciates the threat to the university's core mission from the Legislature’s mandated budget reductions. However, the announced policy regarding complimentary tickets asks a disproportionate, probably long-lived sacrifice from retirees at a time when retirees are sensitive to an emergent pattern of repeated reductions in benefits. They take this as a diminution of appreciation for the work they have done and continue to do to promote the university’s success. Unlike active faculty and staff, retirees have seen their income shrink with the national economic crisis more severely than the university's. Furthermore, the complimentary tickets for retirees represent a smaller marginal cost to either the Lied Center or the university than faculty/staff ticket discounts. (The tickets are rarely issued for sell-out performances and, in tight times, will rarely be replaced by sales at full price.) Finally, the tickets mean much to those who use them and have been viewed as an attraction of retiree life at the University of Kansas for over 30 years. The university’s welfare depends on the good will of large groups of stakeholders, including its retirees, who share in great part the good memories of alumni and contribute in myriad ways to the function of the university. It is the sense of the CRRB that the harm your policy threatens for institutional welfare and constituent good will is penny-wise and pound-foolish. We respectfully ask you to reconsider your decision to temporarily suspend complimentary tickets for retirees.
Most sincerely,
George Crawford, Chair, CRRB

Copies to:

Chancellor Robert Hemenway
Jerry Niebaum, President, The Endacott Society
Joe Steinmetz, Interim Provost
Mary Berry, President, SenEx
Dale Seuferling, President, KU Endowmnt
Tim VanLeer, Director, The Lied Center
Mary Lee Hummert, Provost’s Liaison to CRRB
Kevin Corbett, President, KU Alumni Association
Members of CRRB