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>Administration has also been the motor by which, shall we say, the "new ideological norms" have been imposed on universities In his book The Coddling of the A
by bumby 4y ago
>Administration has also been the motor by which, shall we say, the "new ideological norms" have been imposed on universities
In his book The Coddling of the American Mind Jonathan Haidt covers some of this in-depth. He speaks about the growth of administrators and their general CYA approach, which seems evidenced in the article, among other causes. But where he draws an important distinction from your conclusion is that he claims these universities are reacting to changes in the student culture and administrators aren't the root cause themselves.
He goes on to describe how, because colleges are now run as businesses, they must conform to their customers (students) preferences. Beyond the obvious extravagance of new facilities, this also extends towards cultural policies. Some of that leads to an overly protective safety culture (e.g., expecting third parties to intervene to solve issues) which, in turn, creates the need for more administrators. What's interesting in his book is that he lays the case that this is even more prevalent in prestigious universities because the overly protective safety culture is more prevalent in upper-middle and upper class American culture, which is over-represented in these institutions.
- goatlover 4y ago> He goes on to describe how, because colleges are now run as businesses Why did anyone think this is a good thing?
- ModernMech 4y agoIt's not a good thing, but what else do you expect in a capitalist system? The whole system is tilted toward the "business" construct that even human beings are forced to incorporate in order to remain competitive. What chance do Universities have?
- bumby 4y agoMy guess is that people couldn't forecast this particular result, except in hindsight. I'm sure if you ask most college deans "Would you prefer more money for your department?" the answer is always going to be "yes". So it starts as a one small decision to get more money and that decision leads to another, and another...It's a slow mission creep that can eventually morph the entire culture to one that is ROI focused. I'll give one example from experience. One college used to have a "veterans coordinator" that was really just an ancillary duty assigned to an employee. Just one of those side duties that every has as part of their job. When the new GI Bill was passed, the administration realized how many more veterans may be available for college. They decided to hire a position to focus solely on that program. I mean, who is going to be against the idea of helping veterans transition from service back to civilian life via education, right? Once they saw how much money was involved, they could justify even more hires. Now there are whole teams that only focus on veterans on campus. On one hand, it's a great service to provide a specific population. On the other, it's administrative bloat predicated on an ROI calculation.