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Per recent episode of Bill Maher, Stanford university has over 10000 administrators. Why is higher education so expensive in the US… bloated bureaucracy and fan
by nxm 3y ago
Per recent episode of Bill Maher, Stanford university has over 10000 administrators. Why is higher education so expensive in the US… bloated bureaucracy and fancy buildings which would not happen if the federal government was backing student loans.
- ericmay 3y agoPeople have cited this figure before, but I think the “10,000 administrators” without further context is misleading. The number is 15,000 anyway if you look at Wikipedia. The reason it’s misleading is that it’s being portrayed as though there are 10,000 diversity, equity, and inclusion support group staff or payroll checkers or some other nonsense when the fact of the matter is that these figures include staff doing things like running federal research grant projects, maintaining facilities, working at university hospitals, and numerous other activities. If you think 10,000 is a lot, wait until you see Ohio State University’s 27,000 administrative staff.
- yellow_postit 3y agoAdjust for student body that’s what ~1.5 admin staff per Harvard student and ~2.4 per Ohio state. Both seem crazy on their own but also sensationalized. I’d love to see how this has changed over time and compare school cohorts.
- ericmay 3y agoDoes it seem crazy? What’s the baseline? What’s “normal”?
- yellow_postit 3y agoThat’s my point but I may not have made it well. On its own that “feels” high but a better representation would be to look over time and also try to adjust for things like services offered — eg more sports teams likely means more admin. I don’t know if I’ve seen that dataset though.
- ericmay 3y agoI'm sorry. I read that a little differently and then just reiterated the point you were trying to make. It really would be helpful if these things were broken down and better understood amongst the general population. Costs have gone up but I'd be hesitant (which is a reversal from my previous understanding) to blame that solely on "administrators".
- mensetmanusman 3y agoThe administrative state only knows how to grow indefinitely.
- mixdup 3y agoThat is not unique to Stanford, and every university in the country right now takes federal money in many ways, not just student loans, so your premise does not follow at all
- fastaguy88 3y agoIn interpreting the number of “administrators” at different institutions, it is useful to have an understanding of when one is classified as an administrator. At my institution, there are basically three types of non-wage (classified) positions: tenure track faculty, research faculty, and administrative faculty. Librarians are administrative faculty, as, I suspect, are football coaches. There are, of course, administrators among the administrative faculty, but far fewer than it appears.