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Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

theguardian.com

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Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#131

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

vinylkey wrote: post #52
greglindahl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, who needs the Library and Archives? The book conservation lab is one of the things in the RWC location, that's clearly overhead that's totally not needed! Buckminster Fuller's models? Let 'em molder.

I don't think the argument is that all 2,700 administrators are unneeded, but rather that everything would run as good (if not better) without that much administration bloat.

What is that argument exactly? It appears that a number of these new employees will be staffing the new high-end fitness center with pool, the child care center, cafes and a food pavilion, areas for collaborative working and conferencing, and maintaining the landscaping and open spaces.

Reflexively assuming that all "administrators" are unnecessary bloat isn't much different than the mindset of a corporate raider who wants massive layoffs for increased profitability. It can be a myopic and short-sighted vision of creating actual value.

Also, the School of Medicine, which is arguably the best research medical school in the world and a leader in genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, neuroscience and neurobiology is at ground zero for the genomics revolution and should be more focused on growth, not being pennywise and pound foolish.

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#132

Post by analog31 »

dmix wrote: post #93

Obligatory: > Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: > First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet U…

All I remember of Jerry Pournelle was his monthly piece in Byte Magazine, describing his adventures with a computer that never seemed to completely work.

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#134

Post by KGIII »

ams6110 wrote: post #80
greglindahl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, who needs the Library and Archives? The book conservation lab is one of the things in the RWC location, that's clearly overhead that's totally not needed! Buckminster Fuller's models? Let 'em molder.

Today, a library fits on a hard drive.

And paper has demonstrated great archival traits, where digital has no such thing.

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#135

Post by kemiller »

Animats wrote: post #17

Stanford is building a new "campus" in Redwood City. 35 acres. 2,700 people on site. None are students. None are faculty. No teaching or research will occur there. It's all administrators .[1] "School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land, Buildings and Real Estate; University Human Resources; Residential & Dining Enterprises;…

2700 vs 20000 total students and faculty doesn't seem that crazy. Could it be that they are moving admin so that there is more room on the main campus for academic purposes?

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#136

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

ams6110 wrote: post #80
greglindahl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, who needs the Library and Archives? The book conservation lab is one of the things in the RWC location, that's clearly overhead that's totally not needed! Buckminster Fuller's models? Let 'em molder.

Today, a library fits on a hard drive.

That data didn't just magically migrate to a hard drive. Librarians are often leading and coordinating the digitization of archives

One of the biggest problems facing the biological sciences (and scientific research in general) is an exponential rise in the amount of data being generated, but an inability to catalogue and store the information, much less understand it. Modern librarians are inter-disciplinary problem solvers, often embedded in with faculty and researchers, responsible for indexing and archiving a rapidly increasing amount of information.

Plus, books books have thus far proven to be a more durable storage medium than all digital options in current usage. Without them, a solar flare or nuclear war could cause the modern equivalent of the burning of the Library of Alexandria

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#137

Post by aswanson »

Animats wrote: post #17

Stanford is building a new "campus" in Redwood City. 35 acres. 2,700 people on site. None are students. None are faculty. No teaching or research will occur there. It's all administrators .[1] "School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land, Buildings and Real Estate; University Human Resources; Residential & Dining Enterprises;…

Is this a US phenomenon/problem? I never hear of this problem with European schools as case studies.

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#138

Post by justadeveloper2 »

greglindahl wrote: post #82
melling wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the cost of education in the US being so expensive and the constant call for student loan forgiveness ($1 trillion), it might be worth looking into the extra cost. I’m sure Stanford isn’t unique. The cost of a university education has far outpaced inflation. Harvard cost $2,600 in 1970. https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-hig...

At Stanford, there's no connection between university undergraduate cost and price. Tuition is an unimportant part of the budget.

If that is the case then something is out of whack.

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#139

Post by greglindahl »

kemiller wrote: post #135
Animats wrote: post #17

Stanford is building a new "campus" in Redwood City. 35 acres. 2,700 people on site. None are students. None are faculty. No teaching or research will occur there. It's all administrators .[1] "School of Medicine administration; Stanford Libraries and University Archives; the major administrative units of Business Affairs; Land, Buildings and Real Estate; University Human Resources; Residential & Dining Enterprises;…

2700 vs 20000 total students and faculty doesn't seem that crazy. Could it be that they are moving admin so that there is more room on the main campus for academic purposes?

In Stanford's case, that's exactly what's going on.

Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching

#140

Post by batbomb »

BEEdwards wrote: post #120
phlakaton wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For you to make that argument, you must first make the case that 2,700 actually constitutes bloat. Who exactly would you say is expendable and why? (Not getting down to brass tacks is the great weakness in the article too, I think. The author seems to have an idea that these expendable positions can simply be identified by filtering out anyone who can't explain what they do in non-jargon terms, or asking the surplus…

When your core business is teaching, you have more admin than teachers AND your teachers still have spend a lion share of their time doing admin work, I think it's safe to say you some of those 2700 administrators are unneeded and possibly a hindrance.

Ah, but you are assuming Stanford's core business is, in fact, teaching.
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