I agree with you 100% about administrations being top-heavy. It's a major problem, not only because of financial reasons, but because it creates an inbalance in

I agree with you 100% about administrations being top-heavy. It's a major problem, not only because of financial reasons, but because it creates an inbalance in power structure between the people administrating and faculty. That is, it amplifies the administrative interests and representation relative to the core members of the institution. I think it goes a lot deeper than that, though. To me, I see three fundamental problems, in addition to what you mentioned, and the problem mentioned in the linked article: 1. Relying on grant money to fund universities, 2. Businesses expecting universities to do their work for them, and 3. The erosion of tenure. All of these have been discussed more and more, but I don't think people realize how deep the problems are, and discussions get hijacked by political issues. Grant funding needs to change. Not only is it nepotistic, but universities have become dependent on indirect costs. Nothing would make me happier if indirect costs got cut from grant budgets. Businesses basically now expect universities to do their work for them. Train their employees, do their research, and so forth and so on. And certain political blocks reinforce this. Let's say you have a corporation trying to maximize its profits. They need R&D but don't want to incur the costs. So they go to the legislature and complain that the university isn't doing enough with "real world value." What sort of "real world research" would they like to see? Well, the corporation is all too happy to tell you. In the end, the corporation gets the state to pay for their R&D budget. The irony about discussions about eliminating tenure is that you can already look at its effects. People focus on liberal arts departments, but in medical schools, tenure is very weak or nonexistent: "soft money" position is a euphemism for "phantom" position, as in "you can have this position if you fund it." All the problems with lack of replication in biomedical research? The result of chasing flashy results to get funding to maintain positions, because of lack of tenure. I have nothing wrong with for-profit research, but there is also a need for nonprofit research, and a firewall between them. Right now, that wall is down, and it's eating away at things. Ironically, I've come to think that one of the things that might save public universities is to cut their ties to government altogether, that is, to become private institutions. It would be nice if legislatures would do their jobs and fund them, but if legislatures are going to play this game and try to dictate what universities are doing anyway, why not call a spade a spade and just sever the tie? What's happening a public universities is akin to what I imagine will happen with the Department of the Interior under Trump: a government run by foxes in the henhouse.