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As the study notes, a lot of the extra staff is there for good reasons, and not just bureaucracy for its own sake (that's not to say there isn't plenty of the l

by kgrin 18y ago

As the study notes, a lot of the extra staff is there for good reasons, and not just bureaucracy for its own sake (that's not to say there isn't plenty of the latter, of course). So, can some of the extra staff be trimmed without affecting the academic experience? Absolutely. But in many cases it would affect the social experience (if you cut res life/student activities people), the ability of some students to attend (if you cut financial aid people), and so forth. Some of these things scale pretty linearly with enrollment; some don't. Still others scale linearly, but over 20 years colleges have just been doing more (e.g. college was cheaper, so you needed less of an infrastructure to help students deal with loans). The phrase "academic experience" is a bit of a misnomer, too - certainly having a good IT help desk can contribute to the academic experience (let's consider the non-HN population that can't build their own routers), but those people aren't counted as "academic staff". All that said, there are obviously useless positions, and like all large organizations, colleges are susceptible to waste, mis- and over-management. Pointing out the unsustainability of the current rate of growth is fair game; but I'd be wary of a rush to purge non-academic staff as extraneous.

yummyfajitas 18y ago
* But in many cases it would affect the social experience (if you cut res life/student activities people), the ability of some students to attend (if you cut financial aid people), and so forth.* Probably the best way to handle this would be to make student life an optional service. Basically you pay student fees or else you don't get to join the Korean Social Club or visit the $NAME Center for Women. I expect most students would choose the cheaper, bare-bones college experience (if given the choice). Most of these services exist for the benefit of employees, not for the students.

by kgrin 18y ago

yummyfajitas 18y ago

* But in many cases it would affect the social experience (if you cut res life/student activities people), the ability of some students to attend (if you cut financial aid people), and so forth.* Probably the best way to handle this would be to make student life an optional service. Basically you pay student fees or else you don't get to join the Korean Social Club or visit the $NAME Center for Women. I expect most students would choose the cheaper, bare-bones college experience (if given the choice). Most of these services exist for the benefit of employees, not for the students.