[Orig to FB]
All very well and good if you assume that the sole function of universities is to teach — but it isn’t. There are a few other minor matters like:
- research, which involves everything from coordination (long-term strategy, staffing plans, facilities planning from increasingly technical buildings to equipment acquisitions and maintenance), funding (everything from grant-writing to ongoing compliance to final reporting);
- 360° compliance (legal, HR, finance, facilities maintenance, ongoing oversight, remediation);
- facilities (community liaising, planning, construction, maintenance, coordination, security, coordination with local law enforcement, materials and inventory);
- student services (dorm operations, dining halls and food hygiene, health services including emergency planning and coordination), activities, institutional schedule planning, communications);
- financial aid (high-stakes, unstable under the best of circumstances, compliance-intensive, emergency issues, etc);
- faculty-oriented services (strategy, planning, coordination, hiring, assessment, compliance, remediation);
- curricular operations (long-term strategy, implementation, assignment, assessment, review, accreditation).
IT is a whole other kettle of fish that pervades every one of these things, from long-term planning, to reliable operations, to acquisitions and maintenance, to security, to compliance — and that doesn’t even touch content. Oh, and then there’s marketing and promotions, which schools live or die by. This list could go on and on and on: trustees or regents, alumnae/i relations basic rituals like convocation and commencement. I think sports needs to go, but that’s a minority position, so there’s all that too: strategy, facilities planning and maintenance, coordination, scheduling, transportation, materials, as well as liability issues, promotions, etc, etc. Some of this could be slimmed down, but the fact is that in a modern university teaching is a pretty trivial line item. If you want to go back to simpler times, that could happen, but you can kiss off every aspect of social equity. So, in the absence of a coherent, concrete vision of a stripped-down, back-to-basics, teaching-driven university, these “admin bloat” critiques are mostly bullshit. They don’t have to be, but they are.