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This is a sick path to be on. Keep the money, plug kids into some other university's classes remotely. To what end? A school full of nothing but overpaid adm

This is a sick path to be on. Keep the money, plug kids into some other university's classes remotely. To what end? A school full of nothing but overpaid administrators, and kids all taking remote classes at disparate cheapest possible offerings?

rjbwork 3y ago
I mean, that is kind of the end game of all of this, isn't it? Crank up the prices, rent seek, get your bag, destroy the underlying product in pursuit of personal enrichment. Higher education seems to be lagging the vulture capitalism of the 80's/90's by a couple of decades, but boy it does seem like it's here.
- silisili 3y ago
  Fair point. I guess it has the bonus effect of pulling the ladder up. Don't have to worry about some pesky young, well educated person taking your job or competing for future offerings...
bsder 3y ago
> A school full of nothing but overpaid administrators Um, exactly? The budget crisis is, in fact, easy to solve. Start by laying off administrators in order of highest salary (starting with the University President as he has clearly failed at his job) and continue down the path until you have 25% budget surplus.
- slaymaker1907 3y ago
  Yep, as highlighted in the article, cutting successful academic programs (which the linguistics program seems to have been since it generated 800k in profits) is selling the golden goose.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
tiffanyg 3y ago
Oh yes. I just commented on "market saturation" elsewhere - partly, this is very similar to what I wrote there. Initially, hiring some "professional managers" works well (and, relatedly, expanding sports programs, adding "amenities", etc.). For an individual institution, bringing in this type of "business-thinking" obviously generated results. For example, with the amenities etc. - this was a type of marketing they could do! There's only one "Harvard", "Princeton", etc. ... and, really, for any school, mostly you're avoiding changing "market segment" (in terms of acceptance rate / more generally, the target customer... I mean, student, demographic), but, you can attract applications through various kinds of "differentiation". "Oh, we may not be <ivy-league school X>, but look at this Michelin-starred food court we just built!" But, there are limits. "Exponential" is not forever - locally or globally (in time &/ space). It's nonsensical. Yet, MBAs, and so many others in the modern world, expect and seek "exponential". This is not unique to humans, arguably, but that's a massive other topic I'll avoid. Ultimately, when a handful of institutions start, they get results. Then, others are basically forced to respond ... or get forced out of the market. And, you're left with a bunch of wreckage - including institutions getting so sidetracked from their core missions, you wonder why the hell they're still labeled with "university". It was a frequent enough irritant the last time I was in a more academic setting (as recently as several years ago). Everyone kept waiting for a class to be announced as meeting at the football stadium. Many parents, students, faculty, etc. were annoyed. But, not the wealthy donors, the top admins, etc. Let it collapse under the weight of business school BS, it'll be ... cathartic. All the business school nonsense, that was such a boon... turning around and biting us in the ass. Haha, it's the story of homo sapiens.

rjbwork 3y ago

I mean, that is kind of the end game of all of this, isn't it? Crank up the prices, rent seek, get your bag, destroy the underlying product in pursuit of personal enrichment. Higher education seems to be lagging the vulture capitalism of the 80's/90's by a couple of decades, but boy it does seem like it's here.

silisili 3y ago
Fair point. I guess it has the bonus effect of pulling the ladder up. Don't have to worry about some pesky young, well educated person taking your job or competing for future offerings...

bsder 3y ago

> A school full of nothing but overpaid administrators Um, exactly? The budget crisis is, in fact, easy to solve. Start by laying off administrators in order of highest salary (starting with the University President as he has clearly failed at his job) and continue down the path until you have 25% budget surplus.

slaymaker1907 3y ago
Yep, as highlighted in the article, cutting successful academic programs (which the linguistics program seems to have been since it generated 800k in profits) is selling the golden goose.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

tiffanyg 3y ago

Oh yes. I just commented on "market saturation" elsewhere - partly, this is very similar to what I wrote there. Initially, hiring some "professional managers" works well (and, relatedly, expanding sports programs, adding "amenities", etc.). For an individual institution, bringing in this type of "business-thinking" obviously generated results. For example, with the amenities etc. - this was a type of marketing they could do! There's only one "Harvard", "Princeton", etc. ... and, really, for any school, mostly you're avoiding changing "market segment" (in terms of acceptance rate / more generally, the target customer... I mean, student, demographic), but, you can attract applications through various kinds of "differentiation". "Oh, we may not be <ivy-league school X>, but look at this Michelin-starred food court we just built!" But, there are limits. "Exponential" is not forever - locally or globally (in time &/ space). It's nonsensical. Yet, MBAs, and so many others in the modern world, expect and seek "exponential". This is not unique to humans, arguably, but that's a massive other topic I'll avoid. Ultimately, when a handful of institutions start, they get results. Then, others are basically forced to respond ... or get forced out of the market. And, you're left with a bunch of wreckage - including institutions getting so sidetracked from their core missions, you wonder why the hell they're still labeled with "university". It was a frequent enough irritant the last time I was in a more academic setting (as recently as several years ago). Everyone kept waiting for a class to be announced as meeting at the football stadium. Many parents, students, faculty, etc. were annoyed. But, not the wealthy donors, the top admins, etc. Let it collapse under the weight of business school BS, it'll be ... cathartic. All the business school nonsense, that was such a boon... turning around and biting us in the ass. Haha, it's the story of homo sapiens.