College, University, and Law School tuition and the problem of administrative bloat

09/26/2014

College, University, and Law School tuition and the problem of administrative bloat

Here at the law school at which I'm employed, we've been talking budget issues. And I decided to throw myself under the bus by raising the question of whether administrative bloat is part of the problem.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. After all, it's a widespread problem.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in February of this year that:

Thirty-four pages of research, branded with a staid title and rife with complicated graphs, might not seem like a scintillating read, but there’s no doubt that a report released on Wednesday will punch higher education's hot buttons in a big way.

The report, "Labor Intensive or Labor Expensive: Changing Staffing and Compensation Patterns in Higher Education," says that new administrative positions—particularly in student services—drove a 28-percent expansion of the higher-ed work force from 2000 to 2012. The report was released by the Delta Cost Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan social-science organization whose researchers analyze college finances. ...

You can’t blame faculty salaries for the rise in tuition. Faculty salaries were "essentially flat" from 2000 to 2012, the report says. And "we didn't see the savings that we would have expected from the shift to part-time faculty," said Donna M. Desrochers, an author of the report.

The rise in tuition was probably driven more by the cost of benefits, the addition of nonfaculty positions, and, of course, declines in state support.

The UC System has not been immune to this problem. According to one review of the data, "the management cadre (defined as the employees classified in Senior Management Group and Management & Senior Professionals) ... grew by 252% over the 21 year period while total [UC] employee numbers grew by a mere 51%."

Law schools have been a big part of the problem. According to Paul Campos (admittedly a source I take with a grain of salt), "law school administrative staffs have grown at a far faster pace than even the rapidly expanding tenure-track faculties of schools accredited by the ABA.' The number of full-time administrators who also teach--deans, librarians, and other law school personnel--more than tripled from 1998 to 2008, increasing from 528 to 1,659." That number, of course, excludes non-teaching administrators, where we at UCLAW have seen significant growth.

So we'll see if any good comes of raising the issue.

Posted at 05:40 PM in Law School | Permalink

Comments

I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. After all, it's a widespread problem.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in February of this year that:

Thirty-four pages of research, branded with a staid title and rife with complicated graphs, might not seem like a scintillating read, but there’s no doubt that a report released on Wednesday will punch higher education's hot buttons in a big way.

The report, "Labor Intensive or Labor Expensive: Changing Staffing and Compensation Patterns in Higher Education," says that new administrative positions—particularly in student services—drove a 28-percent expansion of the higher-ed work force from 2000 to 2012. The report was released by the Delta Cost Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan social-science organization whose researchers analyze college finances. ...

You can’t blame faculty salaries for the rise in tuition. Faculty salaries were "essentially flat" from 2000 to 2012, the report says. And "we didn't see the savings that we would have expected from the shift to part-time faculty," said Donna M. Desrochers, an author of the report.

The rise in tuition was probably driven more by the cost of benefits, the addition of nonfaculty positions, and, of course, declines in state support.