4 ms·

I wonder what about administrator job openings? Something tells me that they justified to themselves that all that bureaucracy still needs to be shuffled here

I wonder what about administrator job openings? Something tells me that they justified to themselves that all that bureaucracy still needs to be shuffled here and then shuffled there.

Daub 6y ago
The amount of admin jobs in universities is many times what it was ten years ago. In my last uni, the tek support staff was calculated to be 50% over what was required. The reason was that a large proportion came into work and did the bare minimum to scrape past a performance review. This was a calculated ploy on their behalf. Elsewhere, somewhat pointless positions and departments abound. On a whim, a HOD bought a massively expensive 3D milling machine. For an undergrad Product Design program? Crazy. Of course, we had to hire a dedicated person to operate it. Also, tons of 'quality assurance protocols' require another layer of staff to oversee and manage. A quick search found this: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-uc-spending-20151011-story.html https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-uc-spending-20... Check out the graph of admin vs faculty hires. Its a horror story.
- patagurbon 6y ago
  Having student accessible tools is really great. That's hardly the issue. The issue is the hundreds-thousands in the billing departments etc.
- bcrosby95 6y ago
  Yep, things have been trending this way for a while. From 2001: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Where-do-CSU-dollars-go-2866450.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Where...
justinzollars 6y ago
Administrations should be a subscription based centralized service. AAS (Administration as a Service)
- ineedasername 6y ago
  Some states do something like this. New York, for example, has the SUNY System, and while schools are semi-autonomous, there's a certain amount of centralized resource sharing that leverages economies of scale. I work in Ed Tech, and a quick mental run down of a few examples seem like states with that sort of system often have cheaper tuition.
- MrMorden 6y ago
  Adjunct administrators.
  - justinzollars 6y ago
    I love it.
  - adminprof 6y ago
    I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
bonkabonka 6y ago
Several months after they eliminated all open positions and stopped contributing to 403b funds (at least for staff), the University president sent out a self-congratulatory note about how they'd scored a coup by recruiting the CFO/COO from Johns Hopkins to replace the retiring Executive VP. Oh and nearly all of the austerity measures put in place back in 2008 are still in effect despite them being "temporary" (caps of 1% on annual cost-of-living increases, no more than a single merit raise per department per college per year, no new positions created without highest-level approval, etc). Has someone spun up fuckedcollege.com yet?

I wonder what about administrator job openings? Something tells me that they justified to themselves that all that bureaucracy still needs to be shuffled here and then shuffled there.

Daub 6y ago

The amount of admin jobs in universities is many times what it was ten years ago. In my last uni, the tek support staff was calculated to be 50% over what was required. The reason was that a large proportion came into work and did the bare minimum to scrape past a performance review. This was a calculated ploy on their behalf. Elsewhere, somewhat pointless positions and departments abound. On a whim, a HOD bought a massively expensive 3D milling machine. For an undergrad Product Design program? Crazy. Of course, we had to hire a dedicated person to operate it. Also, tons of 'quality assurance protocols' require another layer of staff to oversee and manage. A quick search found this: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-uc-spending-20151011-story.html https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-uc-spending-20... Check out the graph of admin vs faculty hires. Its a horror story.

patagurbon 6y ago
Having student accessible tools is really great. That's hardly the issue. The issue is the hundreds-thousands in the billing departments etc.
bcrosby95 6y ago
Yep, things have been trending this way for a while. From 2001: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Where-do-CSU-dollars-go-2866450.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Where...

justinzollars 6y ago

Administrations should be a subscription based centralized service. AAS (Administration as a Service)

ineedasername 6y ago
Some states do something like this. New York, for example, has the SUNY System, and while schools are semi-autonomous, there's a certain amount of centralized resource sharing that leverages economies of scale. I work in Ed Tech, and a quick mental run down of a few examples seem like states with that sort of system often have cheaper tuition.
MrMorden 6y ago
Adjunct administrators.
- justinzollars 6y ago
  I love it.
- adminprof 6y ago
  I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

bonkabonka 6y ago

Several months after they eliminated all open positions and stopped contributing to 403b funds (at least for staff), the University president sent out a self-congratulatory note about how they'd scored a coup by recruiting the CFO/COO from Johns Hopkins to replace the retiring Executive VP. Oh and nearly all of the austerity measures put in place back in 2008 are still in effect despite them being "temporary" (caps of 1% on annual cost-of-living increases, no more than a single merit raise per department per college per year, no new positions created without highest-level approval, etc). Has someone spun up fuckedcollege.com yet?