The Perfect Place To Cut College Costs: Take A Lot Off The Administrative Top
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, whose new book is The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself
A simple stroll through most campuses will underscore this change. The number of buildings devoted to administration is much greater than in past years. Priorities show in other ways, too: While more and more actual teaching is outsourced to low-paid adjuncts who lack job security or, often, benefits, the work of administration never seems to be outsourced this way. Who ever heard of an "adjunct administrator?"At many schools, administrators now outnumber teaching faculty, often by significant margins. According to the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, "Part-time faculty and teaching assistants now account for half of instructional staffs at colleges and universities, up from one-third in 1987, the figures show. During the same period, the number of administrators and professional staff has more than doubled. That's a rate of increase more than twice as fast as the growth in the number of students."
And according to a 2010 study by the Goldwater Institute, administrative bloat is the largest driver of high tuition costs. Using Department of Education figures, the study found administration growing more than twice as fast as instruction: "In terms of growth, the number of full-time administrators per 100 students at America's leading universities increased by 39.3% between 1993 and 2007, while the number of employees engaged in teaching research or service only increased by 17.6%."
Reynolds notes possible market challenges to the administrative bloat:
The biggest challenges facing overpriced and bloated institutions will come from technology and the market. With lower-priced alternatives appearing online just as buyer resistance to increased tuition is taking off, colleges must adapt. Purdue University President Mitchell Daniels remarked recently, "Why, in 10 or 15 years, will students still find it wise to pay lots of money to go and live somewhere for four or more years, when a host of competitors are offering to bring them excellent teachers and instruction in the inexpensive comfort of their own homes?"
Is part of the reason for the administrative increase due to increased requirements by the federal government? I know that colleges and universities are required to collect enormous amounts of data about their students and report it to the federal government each year. The collecting and reporting of this data may be part of the reason for this increase in administrators.
Bryan G at February 18, 2014 6:14 AM
Bryan G - as much as it would be nice to blame the federal government, it's much simpler than that: it's plain old greed and bullshit.
Great article from inside the academy:
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2013/10/
andrew at February 18, 2014 7:13 AM
My mother-in-law was an administrative assistant for the University of Texas Engineering department and got retirement after only 10 years. I agree that it's ridiculous that staff has better job security and benefits than actual professors and instructors. At the State U I attended, I recall that most staff seemed to be students on work-study, but that was over 10 years ago, and tuition was about a third what it is now. I think we paid just a little more for 4 years of tuition than what one year would cost now.
ahw at February 18, 2014 8:41 AM
The school I attended had candlelight dinner on Thursdays and afternoon tea and cakes on Fridays. They've cut both those things. Why? They're broke after building a huge new student center just like every other college has.
I dunno. I think a couple candles and boxes of Lipton probably cost a lot less, and added a lot of charm and coziness to the experience. The student center is nice, but the scruffy old one was just fine, not to mention every house had a living room and a library you could hang out in.
Colleges are adding all these amenities that have become "necessary" but are they really?
When I was an adjunct earning 1400 a month pre-taxes, I had to attend a meeting for new faculty. It was a slideshow bragging about the University and the expensive buildings they were building, and all I could think was "Really? And you can't afford to hire any of us full time?"
NicoleK at February 18, 2014 10:34 AM
Not to mention the sports cost a fortune... gets paid back if your team is strong. Huge financial loss if you're not one of the top winning teams.
NicoleK at February 18, 2014 10:35 AM
Bryan G - as much as it would be nice to blame the federal government, it's much simpler than that: it's plain old greed and bullshit.
I dunno--I'd want to see some carefully designed studies before I dismissed regulatory bloat as a cause. After all, greed and bullshit have been around forever.
I wonder if, rather than admin bloat causing tuition bloat, it's the other way around. Student loan bloat causes tuition to rise, and colleges choose to spend the extra money on administration. (Why admin rather than faculty? I don't have an answer for that; this is all speculation anyway.)
Rex Little at February 18, 2014 7:11 PM
Why admin over faculty? Have you been around school admins?
I know people love rallying against liberal professors and their liberal agendas but it's the admins that are at the root of everything -with their superiority complexes, gossiping bullshit and god do they love telling you their titles and how important they are. You must follow the title! I won't do work that is not in my title!
Ppen at February 18, 2014 7:52 PM
And, as someone who works as part time staff in higher ed, you don't want a union rep seeing you do anything that the union is supposed to do. The guys at our branch campus will ask for our help if they need it (rare, but sometimes there's a pallet that just won't fit on a forklift and it has to be lifted, and it takes 6 people) but all of us can get in trouble for it. We've had instances on the Main Campus where a non-union employee handed a tool to a union employee as they were passing by, and then someone in the union taking a break saw it and complained. Plus the title thing is huge. HR has changed my title so many times it's ridiculous (especially because they manage to screw up my pension withholding every time).
spqr2008 at February 19, 2014 5:45 AM
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