When Dr. Murray was still president of CIU, he announced in chapel one year (I believe my sophomore…read moreyear so this would be around 2006-2007) that CIU had received a tremendous financial gift of $4 million. That same day, numerous administrative staff, I believe 8 people, were laid off.
In the summer of my sophomore year, I received word from my professor that the CIU Performing Arts Department had been cut due to financial reasons.
Later, a proposal for building a gymnasium was approved. When students mentioned these discrepancies, it was explained that there were different financial "buckets" and what had been placed in one "bucket" could not be used for another, particularly when donors were giving to a particular cause, in this case the building of a gymnasium and the establishment of an athletics department. I don't know if the donors brought the idea to the university, or if the university brought the idea to the donors, but the fact that the real financial situation was not disclosed to them and made the priority is deeply troubling. This also doesn't explain the fact that, according to friends of mine who used to work for the Kirkland prison initiative, finances that were raised specifically for the prison initiative then were not used for that.
In 2013, weeks after my friend's young spouse passed away, they were laid off, while the university continued to grow its sports program. There was the belief that athletics would bring in the resources to help the university solve it's financial problems. Apparently this turned out to be a losing bet, as this summer, 2016, 4 faculty members and numerous staff were laid off.
All of this indicates a deeply troubling pattern of financial mismanagement, a pouring of resources and energy into the wrong solutions, and mistreatment of CIU's greatest asset: its faculty and staff. I have only reported here what I have experienced firsthand or what I have heard directly from someone who has experienced it, but I have heard inklings here and there of other issues as well, but those are for others to share and confirm. I also have friends who are former employees who had to, in order to receive severance, sign a contract stating they would not speak negatively about the university, which is alarming. This and other things CIU has been doing may technically be legal, but legal technicalities are not the high standard an institution purporting to follow Christ should be holding itself to.
I recently received a voicemail from a CIU staff member named Greta Clinton asking for donations to help fund student scholarships and teacher salaries. This is what CIU should have been soliciting all along, but for the reasons stated above I have zero faith that any dime I donate would go to it's intended cause. I cannot in good conscience donate to this university, nor can I recommend it to any prospective students because I do not believe their hard-earned tuition dollars will be used effectively.
