The High Cost of University

Our budget has been slashed by the state legislature by over 15%. This is on top of severe but not crippling cuts for about three years running. Now we are laying off staff (i..e. working folks, remember them?) and talking about making faculty who don't produce enough research teach another section. Last year the administration cut a day's pay out of our paychecks.

Still no word yet about pay cuts or lay offs among the administration positions, oddly. So this little news clip has some salience. Quoting an article by David Hogberg in Investor’s Business Daily:

Analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that from 1989-2009 the number of administrative personnel at four- and two-year institutions grew 84%, from about 543,000 to over 1 million. By contrast, the number of faculty increased 75%, from 824,000 to 1.4 million, while student enrollment grew 51%, from 13.5 million to 20.4 million.

The disparity was worse at public universities and colleges, where personnel in administration rose 71%, faculty 58% and student enrollment 40%. Private schools also saw administration and faculty growing faster than student enrollment, although faculties slightly outpaced administration increases.