states should cut upper admin's salaries by 1-5% and save hundreds of staff jobs, IMO

[zazen]

I work with universities here in NC, and administration costs, as Marc Bousquet in _How the University Works_ more eloquently argues, have gone through the roof over the past 20 years relative to faculty/staff/student expenses, parallel with the corporate world's growing disparity between CEO pay and the average worker. Not only do upper admins routinely dispense higher pay raises on themselves and their colleagues (all so that they can continue to recruit the most "competitive" fellow administrator candidates), but I've seen some grossly incompetent admins keep their jobs for years, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars and actually _impeding_ quality services while lecturers in English departments work 60-80 hours a week teaching 100 students/semester and make less then 20K/yr with benefits.

So at a particular university, _all_ of the adjuncts/lecturers in the English department, who work for pittances anyway, were summarily dismissed in the Fall so that the sections are now taught--surprise--ONLINE (slave labor for the remaining), while no upper admins have talked about or taken any pay cuts. Why can't they at least start with a sort of graduated 1-5% cut on people making 150K or more per year? Yet, the State of NC is now talking about having to let some SPA staff at the universities go, in addition to cutting most discretionary spending and freezing all but the most critical vacant positions (and "critical" depends on how much pull you have). That'd save hundreds of positions if all the state universities did this.

And a certain university system president is an independent multimillionaire. Wouldn't the class act be to work for a year for a dollar? The salary they'd save would pay several staff in general administration for a year.

I suggested this to my ex, who's a faculty member and faculty rep, who brought it up at one of their budget cutting "brainstorming" sessions. Apparently it was received with gasps.

GRRRRRRRR.

[sendero]

1. I agree...

... completely. Better for this pain to be shared by many than borne by a few.

[exboyfil]

2. More promotions from within - less of these high profile searches

would be a place to start. Reward individuals who want to be "University" men/women and value stability and the continued excellent performance of the university over the rush for a buck. Plenty of talent should exist in this approach with appropriate succession planning.

Another area I would look for savings would be in the sports programs which, if accounting was done properly in the universities, would show they are a big drain on the university's coffers. My father-in-law is the former head of a department at a university, and this is the area in which he identified.

I also think that University's try to offer too many services over and above their primary mission, the teaching of students. Also better accounting should be applied to the split between research/teaching because many professors do not carry their water in teaching while not at least bringing in enough bucks to justify their additional time spent at research.

I disagree with individuals refusing pay because they are independently wealthy (for CEOs, school administrators, or politicians) - you should be compensated for the work that you accomplish. Without this relationship you have to ask who the individual is actually working for (ie $1 a year men in FDR's administration). What you do with the money is your own business (I have known many administrators that turn right around and put the money into scholarship funds etc).

Tenure is a big reason why lecturers are subject to the vagrancies of the budget process. Labor is by far the largest component in college budgets. You can cancel lines if a Professor leaves, but where else can you do cuts?

Our public system is run by Regents and perhaps they could go to the top administrators and ask them to take pay cuts for the good of the University. Our flagship University recently had a Presidential search collapse costing big bucks for the University. I can't imagine how much they plan for this perfect person once they find him/her.

Unfortunately, online teaching for lower level students will continue to grow as cost cutting/efficiencies hit universities. I would expect to see benefits scaled back at some point as well (salaried at my company were forced onto a High Deductible Health Insurance plan - I would expect to see the same at universities).