Well, you did write you would get rid of all administrative staff and replace with academics. I cannot see how very many, if any, academics will be interested

Well, you did write you would get rid of all administrative staff and replace with academics. I cannot see how very many, if any, academics will be interested in 24x7 on call duties to maintain a campus network. Are a handful of faculty assigned this responsibility? Do they leave class to deal with a down router? Do they spend their sabbatical replacing end of life wireless access points? Do they run fiber to new buildings? Or does this responsibility rotate: this week, the history department looks after the network, and next week the English department handles it? As much as I think you under-estimate the work required in this network example, if the proposal is to ask the network engineer to also teach in some capacity, then I also think you under-estimate what is required to be an effective teacher. Running a production network and doing cutting edge research in even networking do not overlap. Expertise in one of these says nothing about one's proficiency in the other. I don't at all disagree with the suggestion that there are some administrative staff who just add overhead. If we were able to reliably identify which these are, then sure, elimination of these positions and turn-over of what few real responsibilities they had to those who remain (perhaps academics) would be a fine way to ensure things stay lean. But what you propose seems to imply most staff positions are fluff, and have responsibilities that could be picked up without radically changing the focus of faculty. I think such a claim is really divorced from a real understanding of what makes the infrastructure and resources at a top tier (or perhaps even any tier) University possible.