America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
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Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#2I have a super liberal (politically, not in the classical sense) sister as a professor at a small school (non Ivy League). She talks all the time about the hyper bloated administration that literally does nothing except make things less efficient and collect a paycheck. It would seem that whether you're on the political left OR right (or somewhere in the middle), that we can all agree that there is a ton of bloat in these institutions and that teaching and research has taken a backseat to sports, never ending growth of campus facilities, and milking students of every last dollar.
Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#3I have a super liberal (politically, not in the classical sense) sister as a professor at a small school (non Ivy League). She talks all the time about the hyper bloated administration that literally does nothing except make things less efficient and collect a paycheck. It would seem that whether you're on the political left OR right (or somewhere in the middle), that we can all agree that there is a ton of bloat in…
Has any university manage to buck this trend?
Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#4Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#5Um, yes? Universities are, essentially, very feudal institutions.
And the ever-more-expensive-and-prestigious-and-diamond-encrusted competition between the "top" universities looks very much like the history of the House of Bourbon.
Which proved unsustainable - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
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Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#7[flagged]
Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#8I have a super liberal (politically, not in the classical sense) sister as a professor at a small school (non Ivy League). She talks all the time about the hyper bloated administration that literally does nothing except make things less efficient and collect a paycheck. It would seem that whether you're on the political left OR right (or somewhere in the middle), that we can all agree that there is a ton of bloat in…
I was under the impression that sports were always a huge deal, are you saying that's increased even more? The growth of administrative roles has been crazy, and behind the majority of the increased costs from what I've seen.
Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#9A university is often run by an administrative bureaucracy and the first rule of any bureaucracy is survival, followed by expansion, and accumulation of wealth. Combined with workplace protections against reducing employees through redundancy and you have a self perpetuating, bloated system.
Re: America's elite universities are bloated, complacent and illiberal
#10I have a super liberal (politically, not in the classical sense) sister as a professor at a small school (non Ivy League). She talks all the time about the hyper bloated administration that literally does nothing except make things less efficient and collect a paycheck. It would seem that whether you're on the political left OR right (or somewhere in the middle), that we can all agree that there is a ton of bloat in…
Has any university manage to buck this trend?
Where would the market fit be for a university to buck the trend? Those who want to fund research will hire the researchers themselves in order to retain ownership and control. Those who want to learn for the sake of learning turn to the internet. There is no money to be made here.
The money is in selling sports and status. The students want to be milked as a care-free willingness to be milked is what establishes the status. An efficiently run university doesn't reflect well. It's the glitz and glamour that gets people's attention (especially employer attention).