Don’t miss the latest update: http://blnnews.com/2015/10/28/new-update-concerning-isu/
My church Council voted to terminate any further action with ISU yesterday. We feel horrible for the little kids that could be helped, but government lawyers and churches are not a good combination.
By: Diane Benjamin
This is another lesson in limited government! Hopefully readers have figured out Limited Government has nothing to do with abolishing government, it has everything to do with eliminating stupid government enriching bureaucrats instead of serving the people!
Here’s the story:
Several months ago my church (as well as many others in the area) was contacted by a group from ISU called TAP – The Autism Project. They are part of the Psychology Department at ISU training doctoral candidates through working with very young victims of autism. They had been renting property in Normal but they lost their funding and couldn’t afford to continue renting.
ISU couldn’t find a spot on campus for this group to work with the kids a couple hours a day Monday-Friday? Seriously?
Anyway, my church was the only one to respond to their request for help. The name of the church isn’t important, we didn’t talk with TAP to look like great people. We talked with them because the church was built for a daycare ministry. DCFS made our lives miserable, the daycare ended. The space is perfect for what TAP needs.
The TAP people are wonderful caring and very thankful people. We offered them the space for FREE. We will pay higher utilities because they will be using space that isn’t currently heated and cooled. We offered the space for FREE because TAP doesn’t have any funding for space AND we want to help make a difference in these kids lives.
Things took an ugly turn when ISU decided they had to APPROVE the FREE space. Between 12 and 15 different people at ISU had to tour and required changes to our FREE space. We added doors, added latches on cabinets, bought and mounted a fire extinguish, moved furniture, cleaned and de-cluttered the space, provided a cabinet for TAP materials – this is the short list!
The Bloomington Fire Department toured the space and approved it. ISU still wanted changes like cubbies removed. We said NO.
Now ISU wants us to sign a 10 page contract for our FREE space that transfers most of the liability to US for any injuries to their people.
ISU has driven our congregation president nuts with a barrage of phone calls and nonsensical demands only worthy of bureaucratic trying to justify their employment! ISU can’t find space on their sprawling campus for use by TAP – a couple of hours per day, 5 days a week, but they DEMAND we comply with their edicts.
News Flash ISU: Our space is FREE. It costs us money to let you use our FREE space.
We have a small congregation. Many members have joined the great Exodus from Illinois. We aren’t rich. We offered TAP the space because we have it and it was a perfect fit for their needs.
Bottom line: ISU will sign OUR contract changes or TAP won’t have a home.
Maybe I should intensify investigations of ISU. No doubt taxpayer abuse exists there, just like every other level of government.
No good deed ever goes unpunished…a shame.
We had a similar experience with ISU declining to work with our Robotics team and the U of I is jeopardizing a potential site in the same way.
Diane, just a thought…..Aside from the near fanatic anti-Christian prejudice in high education today, do you think ISU’s bad behavior could be related to your membership in the Church? Seriously, would they have had a way of knowing that?
Guilt by association and an eagerness to destroy anybody and anything that is even remotely connected with a high profile Conservative is a daily element of the Left’s playbook. Look at what has been happening recently to Companies that dare to advertise on Rush’s program.
They don’t know anything about me being a member of a member of the church council. This is purely bureaucrats doing what bureaucrats do.
I wouldn’t blame this entirely on ISU. Keep in mind what overarching bureaucracy ISU must report to. There’s the problem.
Often it’s just about fear of getting sued if someone gets hurt.
Exactly.
Once the legal department gets involved and Environmental Health and Safety, which ensures all state and federal guidelines are followed, you have the situation you have. It’s not so much ISU as the larger governmental regulations that are the problem. Sorry that it’s caused so much trouble. I know the person that runs that program.
ISU is an extremely well run university. There is nothing happening with the administration that is worth investigating.
That sounds like a challenge! How many employees have been paid to leave? I know of 2 – I bet there are more.
It is standard practice across the country to pay out, or negotiate reduced payouts, when a contract employee is fired (or agrees to quit), such as an athletic director or a senior administrator. The thinking is that if they do not pay out, then the subsequent law suit and pay out will be even more expensive.
In government! Maybe a few top CEO’s, not normal people. One I know of was just teaching.
It may also be interesting to investigate the metrics on how ISU grades performance for the employees. I know of a 1st level manager who is astounded at the very low bar of performance at ISU. She left County where she worked as an analyst to be an analyst at ISU. She was promoted to team lead within months and 1st level manager shortly thereafter.
Without a source inside ISU, info on that would be hard to obtain