By: Matthew Ruckman / Staff Writer
Over Summer A, the Board of Trustees (BOT) decided that the FIU University Park campus would be renamed after the former president, Modesto A. Maidique, in honor of his 23 years of service as president the University. This change, decided without input from the student body, hasn’t been received well amid the climate of cutbacks and layoffs sweeping the University.

Maybe it’s the cost of the name change, or maybe the eye-rolling sentimentality of it all that leaves most wondering what the BOT was thinking. Good or bad, the timing is dreadful. It smacks of insensitivity to change the name of the entire UP campus to honor one man, while excellent teachers are being let go in droves, and whole programs are being abolished. Now is not the time for congratulations.

I, for one, agree that Maidique worked here a long time and did some great things for the school. I’m sure Maidique, and hopefully the BOT, will recognize that what our cash-strapped university needs is not more plaques or periphrastic names, but sound leadership and financial restraint.