No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study

[exboyfil]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/opinion/trustees-tuition-lazy-rivers.html?_r=0


"The unfortunate truth is that while most college presidents care deeply about their institution’s success, an important part of their job is to shake free more resources. They seldom initiate serious campaigns to contain costs.

This means it falls on trustees to be better prepared to help challenge costly proposals that don’t add educational value. When it comes to state schools, the states themselves should educate trustees to understand their responsibilities to the citizenry and students. Training on big-picture issues and higher-education trends, such as the financial trade-off between instruction and research, the costs of intercollegiate athletics, and the expansion of amenities, would help trustees develop courage to ask college presidents probing questions that look beyond institutional narratives and cherry-picked rhetoric."

Too much of our politics in our country is binary. Yes for profits are horrible and Obama's administration took steps to address the problem (steps sadly being unwound by de Vos and Trump). Public institutions also have to address whether they are providing the very best education at the lowest cost.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. We have more vice presidents than you can shake a stick at.

So much of what we spend on our campus goes to things not related to teaching and research. Our faculty have not had raises in 5 plus years.

My husband is expected to write grants and then they take 40 plus percent for "administrative costs". He encourages undergrads to be in his lab and then can't find a few hundred to allow them to go to a conference and present their work. He was told things were just to tight right now. He is including it in his NIH renewal hoping someone sees the value in encouraging young people to pursue bio-medical research as undergrads. The two best researchers he has are sophomores.

Pretty soon we will have a vice president of the mens room if it keeps up like it is. Don't get me started on athletics! I love football but the emphasis on athletics is nuts.

There are problems in every institution, higher ed is no exception. This focus on the "business model" in high ed is not productive.

[CrispyQ]

2. Private industry is the same.

They lay off as many worker bees as they can & hire more Directors & VPs. I've worked at companies that had Directors & VPs who had zero direct reports. WTF?

This has been around for awhile, but it's still a good one.

Is Your State's Highest Paid Employee a Coach? Probably!
https://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-a-co-489635228

[exboyfil]

4. You are right about coaches and I want

our public universities to get out of the NFL/NBA/MLB farm team model, but many of those coaches do bring in revenue that justify their salary.

[redstatebluegirl]

7. Yep

[exboyfil]

3. Great points and the addition of administration

is a complaint by the right as well. I am not sure that indicting the business model is the right approach either.


Here is a link to the UMich organization structure. You are right that there are no fewer than eleven Vice Presidents.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Emulating private industry is the whole goal of the program outlined ...

... in the Powell Memorandum.

Links to this memo are posted frequently to DU, and none of them is wasted. Everyone needs to know how programmatic the planned decline of American higher education has been.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Time for yet another link to the Powell Memorandum ...

https://www.alternet.org/how-higher-education-us-was-destroyed-5-basic-steps