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I'll just throw this out here to put some numbers on this so people understand it's more than just a political narrative. At the University that I went to, Wis
by bilbo0s 6y ago
I'll just throw this out here to put some numbers on this so people understand it's more than just a political narrative.
At the University that I went to, Wisconsin, there are 2200 academic staff. (Professors, TAs, Deans, etc).
The total number of employees, however, is roughly 21000.
Now I understand that this is due to large, operations level bureaucracies that are necessary to pull off something like a University of Wisconsin. Facilities and Plant, Campus police, not to even speak of the big ones like DoIT. (DoIT is all the IT people. Network support, web developers, DBAs etc.) I get that. At the same time, that's almost a 10 to 1 ratio. Keep in mind, the University of Wisconsin is one of the more frugal universities out there in this regard.
Again, I don't question that some of this is necessary, how much? I don't know. But having the numbers and the positions these people are employed in does put us in a better position to, at a minimum, have an informed discussion of the subject.
I know that if the University of Wisconsin shut down the math department because the web developers and DBAs at DoIT had to be paid, I would definitely be someone who would assume that to be an unwise decision. Just putting myself in the shoes of the people who care about the subject university.
- qwantim1 6y agoIt could be about budget. It could also be perceived incompetence. If students don’t seem to be getting benefit from education by professors who focus solely on mathematics, then that problem needs to be understood. This is the second time this has happened according to the tweet, and the professors have been unable to defend themselves both times. Maybe someone should offer to assist in improvement of the program. It’s probably a fine place to work if they want to stay there this much.
- rblatz 6y agoI don’t know anything about this group of professors, but I would assume a good department head could defend and prevent this type of issue. If your superiors continually think you and all your peers are dead weight that’s as much your fault as theirs.
- waterhouse 6y ago"Yes, Minister" has an episode about a hospital with 500 employees and no patients: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAk448volww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAk448volww The show's creators said: "After inventing this absurdity, we discovered there were six such hospitals (or very large empty wings of hospitals) exactly as we had described them in our episode, notably one in Cambridgeshire in which there was only one patient: the Matron (head of nursing staff) who had fallen over some scaffolding and broken her leg."
- veridies 6y agoThe flip side of this is that if have excess capacity for medical treatment, that can be incredibly helpful in the case of a rare event such as a terrorist attack or a pandemic.
- antonvs 6y agoExcess capacity doesn't have to be 100% operational at all times.
- tomp 6y ago2019: all these empty hospitals with too much staff and no patients?! Let's close them down, save some money! 2020: why is our medical system running at 90% capacity in normal times?! Why don't we have some idle capacity for emergencies (natural disaster, pandemic, war)?
- rualca 6y agoBaseline capacity and the ability to scale up to withstand peaks are two separate things.
- majewsky 6y agoThis may apply to equipment and even buildings to a certain extent, but qualified nurses are not something you can just purchase off the shelf like a new rack of servers when demand is high. This applies doubly so for intensive care, which even regular (i.e. non-ICU) nurses are not qualified for without prior training. Where are those people going to come from when demand peaks?
- ficklepickle 6y agoI managed two weeks in university IT as a developer before I just had to leave and never come back. If it is anything like UBC IT, it is not worth losing math over.