We knew it was coming, and we knew there was a pretty good shot it wouldn’t be pretty when it got here.

The “it” we’re referring to is the slew of changes officials at the University of Northern Colorado have to decide on in the face of a large budget deficit. It’s a process that has been ongoing ever since UNC president Andy Feinstein took that post in July 2018, and one on which the UNC community has been anxiously waiting for an update.

The first part of that reckoning arrived late this past week, very much as advertised, when Feinstein announced around 65 people, mostly classified staff, will have their jobs eliminated by as soon as March.

The response, as one might expect, was swift and stern. Hundreds gathered Monday to voice their collective anger over the impending layoffs. Many gathered again Friday at a UNC board of trustees meeting to do the same.

We certainly understand the reaction. The people losing their jobs are most likely members of the Greeley community, and students will almost certainly view their absence as a sign of less support. It’s only natural for both those groups to be upset.

Still, we can’t help but feel some appreciation for the way Feinstein, who wasn’t part of the decision making that resulted in the budget troubles, has handled the situation. While he hasn’t been perfect – an opinion we’re sure even he would agree with – he has provided a sense of transparency in this process that was sorely lacking at UNC before he arrived.

We realize it’s his job to stand in front of a room of angry people and face their ire, but he wouldn’t have been the first person in that job to avoid that particular responsibility. We appreciate how seriously he takes it, as well as all aspects of a process that seems to only offer varying degrees of bad options – and one that clearly hasn’t been easy on him.

However, more than anything, we appreciate the passion displayed by those voicing their displeasure with the cuts. Making sure they are heard is often the only option folks have when it comes to enacting change on big issues like preserving the makeup of their community.

As such, we were happy to see so many people come out Monday to make their opinions known to the person serving as the face of these changes. We were even happier, though, to see almost as many turn out Friday to make those same opinions known to the trustees who were a part of the decision-making that led us here.

Students should have access to and feel comfortable approaching Feinstein about issues like this. But we feel there should be some accountability from those whose leadership resulted in the budget deficit.

To that end, we encourage those unhappy with UNC’s impending cuts to keep running their grievances up the flagpole.

UNC’s trustees are appointed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. That’s the same man who decided not to heed warnings from the presidents of Colorado’s state universities when he was budgeting as to how much funding the schools would need from the state to avoid further financial quagmires.

It’s the same man who is the chief executive of a government that doesn’t allow its colleges to pay for new buildings from the general fund. Facilities upgrades have to come from bonds, giving the appearance of robbing Peter to pay Paul for those projects. That makes it easy to view every new building – say, a new campus commons, for example – as an unneeded luxury rather than a typical upgrade.

For those reasons, we recommend that folks upset with UNC’s impending cuts also voice their feelings to Polis or another elected state official. While we’re dealing with the painful effects on the local level – and some of that pain is certainly the result of local decisions – much of what led UNC to its current financial state is the result of a broken system of funding on the state level.

Maybe if we start from the top down, we can avoid more of those painful effects from showing up in our community moving forward.