Not terribly surprising since universities have greatly expanded their activities outside undergraduate/graduate education. And, there seems to be less desire among Ph.D. graduates to go into instructional positions. The majority of my own cohort either became administrators or went to work in industry.

K.T., at 9:05 am EDT on March 12, 2008

Yes, but...

While I agree with Ann’s comment that (many) administrators face a wider variety of duties and heavier workloads, the reality remains that faculty lines — at least in the 3 state systems that I’ve been a part of — are not considered funding priorities. The “academic year model” of finance seems to reward NOT replacing faculty lines, as it then appears that a college within a school or the school itself has more money in its budget.

Most of the administrators that I know work hard in an often thankless job. So, in fact, do most of the faculty that I know — except our numbers continue to dwindle even as schools (at least in my system) continue to push for and boast of record enrollments. Apparently we can administer these students out the wazoo, but who’s going to actually *teach* them?

Professor G, at 9:35 am EDT on March 12, 2008

Don’t jump to the easy conclusion: that institutions are placing less emphasis on the academic program and padding the administrative ranks.

Don’t jump to conclusions without reading more carefully... Simply because universities have expanded their non-academic activities does not mean they focus less on the academic activities. It is not a zero sum game.

If the academic budget increases, but the non-academic budget increases more rapidly — as at my institution — the university has expanded its non-academic programs, but not at the expense of academic programs. Many universities have simply expanded student services, public service centers, etc. which require administrators and not faculty.

K.T., at 10:30 am EDT on March 12, 2008

A feather in the cap to publics...

whom if mine eyes do not decieve me have many fewer administrators then their private school counterparts. Yet, there are still those who shout about “the bloated, wasteful administrators” spending tax dollers at public schools. It is all a chimera meant to divert attention from the real issues.

Yup, I am definately going to be citing this research to those folks. Meanwhile, I am still waiting for a new contract with an increase, or even a COLA.

Bob, at 11:10 am EDT on March 12, 2008

Entertainment Status

Since we all seem to be buying into this “education as business” model and we faculty are the ones on the playing field trying to meet the entertainment desires of the customers (students), I want a deal like the players in professional sports, where the players get paid more than the administrators and the stars get “escalation clauses” that guarantee them a percentage plus the highest administrator salary.

Unfortunately, our industry is still in [Upton] Sinclar’s jungle, with our cut-off limbs just more sausage to feed the masses.

Oops! There I go, being cynical again!

bluechip, Faculty at Green River Community College, at 11:25 am EDT on March 12, 2008

I’m a full-time tenured professor in a state university science department that is growing in numbers of majors but shrinking in terms of full-time faculty. My department is down from 9 to 4 over 5 years. We’re being asked to do more teaching plus more administrative duties while relying increasingly on part-time adjunct faculty for many classes. Our “full-time” work loads have increased to beyond “full-time” since there are fewer of us to handle growing departmental administrative tasks handed down from new administrative offices. I can’t argue that we don’t need many of the administrators that we now have in this era, but I wonder if many of them couldn’t be hired as adjunct part-timers without benefits too, instead of only the academic end of the “business” bearing that burden? We’re getting very tired and it’s getting harder to find and retain qualified faculty, much less the enthusiastic and inspired teachers of yesterday.

CW, at 2:35 pm EDT on March 12, 2008

Let’s get real

We have known there is tremendous waste in education (yes, private schools aren’t doing any better than public schools) but it is the taxpayer and the parent who foots the bill at public schools. And as a parent who is footing the bill for my daughter’s education — and seeing costs increase much more rapidly than inflation —at some point academics need to recognize that we may be nearing the tipping point — where only the very wealthy kids or the poor kids who qualify for student aid can afford a college education. What needs to be done to make higher education more affordable? If we need to eliminate some of the mandates, let’s do it.

Bahamamamasmama, parent at Texas State, at 4:40 pm EDT on March 12, 2008

neither professor nor administrator

This study seems to be based on the assumption that if you work for a university but are not a professor then you must be an administrator. I am a full time researcher and my duties have nothing to do with administration. The same is true for a large number of employees.

James Phillips, Senior Research Programmer at University of Illinois, at 7:30 pm EDT on March 12, 2008

Cost to hire anyone

Again, let’s not forget the fringe!! At somewhere in the neighborhood of $14,000 to pay for an FTE’s (faculty or administrator) health insurance — and that’s 80% of it — it’s a wonder anyone is being hired anymore. However, the administrators are usually hammering away in budget meetings about how badly their particular FTE is needed. I’m presuming, perhaps spuriously, that it’s more difficult for faculty to make their case to the university/college as they are once removed from the budget process and must apply to “the powers that be” for their additional FTEs. Maybe administrators are recommending filling those needed teaching slots with adjuncts in the hopes of avoiding these huge additional costs.

I believe this is the main driver of the current trend in hiring. Administration is bulking up due to all of the reasons cited above. However, there are also more people going to college than ever before and likely more professors are required to teach. I would concur that fewer professors are being hired as full time or into tenure track positions for those long-haul reasons.

S. Tyler, at 12:05 pm EDT on March 13, 2008

Speaking of misleading headlines

The headline is misleading as well. Looking at the numbers in the report suggests that the absolute number of faculty has increased across the board. There are more full-time professors, more tenure track, and more tenured professors than a few years ago. It just happens that the ranks of the part-time, non-tenure-track faculty are growing more rapidly. It’s not really a “shrinking” professoriate — just an increasingly part-time one!

Amanda, Professor, at 6:30 am EDT on March 16, 2008