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Administrative overhead is growing, but you can't cut there - you need functional infrastructure. So you cut where you can, and that is at the teaching end. B

Administrative overhead is growing, but you can't cut there - you need functional infrastructure. So you cut where you can, and that is at the teaching end. By the way, part of the growing infrastructure is because universities are trying to attract non-traditional students, such as first-generation students, minorities and non-Western students. You can drop a middle-class US guy into a US university, and he will do just fine. But a minority student may need tutoring (because his high school plainly sucked), someone from China will need help with cultural adjustment, and a first-generation student may not even know how to study (his family is of no help). All this is motivated by the need for more bodies paying tuition.

ericd 12y ago
Are you sure that admin overhead couldn't be cut? Does the president really need to make 7 figures?
- HarryHirsch 12y ago
  University presidents are fundraisers and marketeers. I suspect the talent pool is small, there are not that many people with good connections to donors and proven ability to attract outside money. And the need for external funds is rising. Here is a particularly lurid example, but the idea is the same everywhere: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/nyregion/a-quick-descent-for-cecilia-chang-dean-at-st-johns.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/nyregion/a-quick-descent-f...
  - Bahamut 12y ago
    Wow...reading that story and seeing that picture, I think I might have gambled on the same table as her on blackjack once about 6-7 years ago, either in Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods (I forget). That is chilling.
wtbob 12y ago
> Administrative overhead is growing, but you can't cut there - you need functional infrastructure. A college needs gardeners, programmers, network admins and secretaries; does it need Vice Presidents of Student Diversity and football coaches?
- rayiner 12y ago
  Football coaches pay for themselves. As for vice presidents of student diversity, I think they get a bad rap. As college expands to include more than just the children of the rich, you need additional support infrastructure for students: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to-graduate.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to-gr...
  - yummyfajitas 12y ago
    Or perhaps colleges simply need to stop admitting students without adequate preparation in the name of "diversity". I'm also uncertain what "diversity" has to do with "children of the rich". Maybe you could explain? According to the article you link to, the "diverse" students have SAT scores 200 pts lower than average and perform even worse than that SAT gap would predict. It seems a bit unfair to charge students who study for exams extra money simply to pay for extra help to those who don't (e.g., "Vanessa" in the article you link to).
    - rayiner 12y ago
      Here is the relevant statistic: > If you compare college students with the same standardized-test scores who come from different family backgrounds, you find that their educational outcomes reflect their parents’ income, not their test scores. Take students like Vanessa, who do moderately well on standardized tests — scoring between 1,000 and 1,200 out of 1,600 on the SAT. If those students come from families in the top-income quartile, they have a 2 in 3 chance of graduating with a four-year degree. If they come from families in the bottom quartile, they have just a 1 in 6 chance of making it to graduation. We're talking about students with similar SAT scores displaying dramatically different graduation outcomes based on parental income. The function of college, especially state colleges, isn't to reward people for being on the ball earlier in life, especially considering how much that has to do with parental education and income. It's to educate the populace, and enable upward mobility within society. It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to not spend money helping lower-income students graduate at the same rate as higher-income students with similar SAT scores. Every low-income student with above-average SAT scores that doesn't graduate college is a huge missed opportunity for the state to put a capable and educated person into the workforce.
Retric 12y ago
You can cut a lot of fat from University administrative budgets. Just as an example outsource email. There are plenty of reasons this does not happen, but mostly it's a question of politics not cost savings.
- _delirium 12y ago
  A lot of universities already do outsource email. Some University of California campuses use Google, for example. The big growth in administrative expense isn't really the IT department, though, but more on the high end, the vast array of Deans and Associate Deans and Office of the Provost, with their staff and consultants and travel and such.
munin 12y ago
> you need functional infrastructure. So you cut where you can, and that is at the teaching end. what is the point of the infrastructure if there is no one to teach?

ericd 12y ago

Are you sure that admin overhead couldn't be cut? Does the president really need to make 7 figures?

HarryHirsch 12y ago
University presidents are fundraisers and marketeers. I suspect the talent pool is small, there are not that many people with good connections to donors and proven ability to attract outside money. And the need for external funds is rising. Here is a particularly lurid example, but the idea is the same everywhere: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/nyregion/a-quick-descent-for-cecilia-chang-dean-at-st-johns.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/nyregion/a-quick-descent-f...
- Bahamut 12y ago
  Wow...reading that story and seeing that picture, I think I might have gambled on the same table as her on blackjack once about 6-7 years ago, either in Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods (I forget). That is chilling.

wtbob 12y ago

> Administrative overhead is growing, but you can't cut there - you need functional infrastructure. A college needs gardeners, programmers, network admins and secretaries; does it need Vice Presidents of Student Diversity and football coaches?

rayiner 12y ago
Football coaches pay for themselves. As for vice presidents of student diversity, I think they get a bad rap. As college expands to include more than just the children of the rich, you need additional support infrastructure for students: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to-graduate.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-gets-to-gr...
- yummyfajitas 12y ago
  Or perhaps colleges simply need to stop admitting students without adequate preparation in the name of "diversity". I'm also uncertain what "diversity" has to do with "children of the rich". Maybe you could explain? According to the article you link to, the "diverse" students have SAT scores 200 pts lower than average and perform even worse than that SAT gap would predict. It seems a bit unfair to charge students who study for exams extra money simply to pay for extra help to those who don't (e.g., "Vanessa" in the article you link to).
  - rayiner 12y ago
    Here is the relevant statistic: > If you compare college students with the same standardized-test scores who come from different family backgrounds, you find that their educational outcomes reflect their parents’ income, not their test scores. Take students like Vanessa, who do moderately well on standardized tests — scoring between 1,000 and 1,200 out of 1,600 on the SAT. If those students come from families in the top-income quartile, they have a 2 in 3 chance of graduating with a four-year degree. If they come from families in the bottom quartile, they have just a 1 in 6 chance of making it to graduation. We're talking about students with similar SAT scores displaying dramatically different graduation outcomes based on parental income. The function of college, especially state colleges, isn't to reward people for being on the ball earlier in life, especially considering how much that has to do with parental education and income. It's to educate the populace, and enable upward mobility within society. It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to not spend money helping lower-income students graduate at the same rate as higher-income students with similar SAT scores. Every low-income student with above-average SAT scores that doesn't graduate college is a huge missed opportunity for the state to put a capable and educated person into the workforce.

Retric 12y ago

You can cut a lot of fat from University administrative budgets. Just as an example outsource email. There are plenty of reasons this does not happen, but mostly it's a question of politics not cost savings.

_delirium 12y ago
A lot of universities already do outsource email. Some University of California campuses use Google, for example. The big growth in administrative expense isn't really the IT department, though, but more on the high end, the vast array of Deans and Associate Deans and Office of the Provost, with their staff and consultants and travel and such.

munin 12y ago

> you need functional infrastructure. So you cut where you can, and that is at the teaching end. what is the point of the infrastructure if there is no one to teach?