Aug. 10, 2007

The Overworked College Administrator

Right after Labor Day each year, I offer bets to my administrative peers on how long it will take for a faculty member who’s been away from the college for the past three months to declare wearily, “I’m exhausted.” I never get any takers: We all know we’ll hear it the first day faculty return to campus from their vacations.

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Now, I know it isn’t all fun and games at the beach for summering faculty who teach at colleges with traditional academic calendars. They’ve spent at least some of their time conducting research, writing papers for publication or presenting at conferences, developing course syllabuses, and reading texts they will assign to their students in the coming semesters. Having just spent a year reading piles of articles and a dozen books to prepare to teach just a couple of guest lectures in a fairly uncharted field as part of an established graduate course (with no reduction in my job duties), I have new respect and sympathy for the enormous amount of work faculty perform, as well as for the centrality of that work to a college’s mission.

Faculty are the pivot around which the college’s entire operation spins — their role analogous to engineers’ in software firms and doctors’ in hospitals. Faculty form that contingent of skilled workers without whom there would be no education for students, and no work for administrators. In short, it’s all about them. Which is why we administrators, who, incidentally work all summer long — often forfeiting earned vacation days because of the demands and deadlines of our jobs — are not allowed to complain or even raise the subject of our own crushing workloads.

Online searches on Google, and even Inside Higher Ed, for information on “administrative workloads” turns up thousands of references — about faculty workloads. And occasionally, graduate students’. To find any discussion of administrators’ workloads, I had to go to Australia — to comments by the president of the Association for Tertiary Education Management on a report that had taken this topic under consideration in 2003. And even there, the issue was discussed from the perspective of administrators taking on more faculty work.

But, why can’t both faculty and staff be recognized as overworked? Does there have to be an oppressor (administrators) and the oppressed (faculty)?

As an administrative director at a small East Coast university, I spend my days performing meaningful, challenging work. Yet, like many other college administrators, even those at institutions with more than enough financial resources to hire adequate staff, I struggle daily with an impossible workload. Why this should be so, I’m not exactly sure, and I am unlikely to find out. At the college where I work, it’s verboten to bring up the subject with our supervisors, as damaging as it would be at a high-powered law firm where one was trying to make partner.

We directors are warned that those above us in the administrative hierarchy, that is, deans and vice presidents, “don’t want to hear it.” The slightest reference to the problem, in fact, elicits from our superiors one of two responses: Some euphemistic phrase accurately translated as, “Suck it up,” or a diatribe on the boss’s own heavy responsibilities.

This conspiracy of silence wasn’t always the case. About five years ago, my institution actually hired someone to analyze administrators’ workload. But the woman was given so many (unrelated) urgent projects that she has never gotten around to pursuing her original mandate. And, it’s unlikely that she ever will.

I suspect that the aversion to open discussion of administrators’ workload might be that such an acknowledgment contradicts the image of universities and perhaps of nonprofits in general as humane, caring institutions, where thoughtful deliberation, rather than wild-eyed speed, is the norm. Yet, my colleagues and I race around frantically, fragmented and frustrated by the number of committee assignments we have (yes, we are as “committeed” out as faculty are); by the hours of “pre-work” required for all the mandatory, yet largely irrelevant and often redundant, training sessions we must sit through; by the endless meetings large and small that put us even further behind than we would have been had we been feverishly producing at our desks; by the arcanely complicated bureaucratic paperwork we must complete, and the dozens of e-mails and telephone calls we are required to respond to each day, including weekends. And although we seldom have sufficient staff, we must mentor, direct, supervise, discipline and employ complicated processes to evaluate whatever staff, student workers, or interns we are fortunate enough to have snagged.

The number of administrators in higher education has grown steadily from 44,700 over the past decade or so. If there are more of us to do the work, why do we feel so overburdened? For one thing, colleges are educating more students and hiring more faculty — many of them part timers — to teach them. Seventeen million students and about 1.4 million faculty members are served and supported by about 800,000 administrators and professional staff, who recruit and evaluate the students, determine, coordinate, and award them financial aid, produce catalogs, now in print and online, schedule their courses, register them for classes, process their records, and oversee their daily lives. Administrators supervise the building and maintenance of additional classrooms, dormitories, and cafeterias in which to teach, house, and feed all these students. We write and review faculty contracts, calculate their paychecks and oversee their benefits (different for full-time and contract faculty), advertise their courses and special lectures, and keep track of academic department business.

Not only is the student population bigger, it is diverse, which often calls for customization. For example, adult learners, whose numbers have grown enormously over the past twenty years, might need schedules that differ from those of younger students, usually eschew campus living, and favor online classes or those held at satellite campuses more convenient to their jobs or homes. Administrators must arrange all of this.

Another explanation for the burgeoning administrative class is technology, which was supposed to make us all — faculty, staff, students, and society at large — more productive. Perhaps it has, but it has also necessitated large administrative departments to install and maintain hundreds and, in large institutions, thousands of computers, as well as sophisticated meeting, teaching, and library technology, and train students and faculty to use it all.

If my college is anything to go by, the expectations of parents, students, faculty, and staff alike have changed. Post-9-11, parents of undergraduates considering my college rank safety as their number one concern, thus the beefed up (and better trained) security personnel on campus. Parents’ second highest priority is career preparation. Traditional age undergraduates and their parents, as well as adult students, expect the college to staff career centers with counselors and libraries and up-to-date databases of desirable jobs to position students and alumni to compete in the marketplace. Faculty, staff, and students, reflecting the values present elsewhere in American society, demand a wider variety of foods prepared by chefs, short order cooks, and salad and sandwich makers to turn out healthy meals, and more cashiers to get everyone through the cafeteria checkout lines faster. And, finally, the entire college community expects there to be employees to shepherd guests to the parking lot, and greet and direct them, once inside. This all requires non-academic staff.

Although I was aware that my colleagues were as busy as I was, I had not realized how deeply it was affecting them because I was not privy to their private meltdowns. Then, a 35-year veteran at my college confessed that, overwrought by the amount of work she had on her desk and the thought that, once again, she would have to forgo a well-deserved day off, she had collapsed, sobbing, in a dean’s office. The dean related that she herself had nearly gone over the edge after rushing through a job for the president, only to be asked why it had taken her so long. The Friday after the director and dean swapped their stories, a staff member reporting to the director suddenly “lost it” — that is, began sobbing on the job because of the volume of work she would have to accomplish over the weekend. The director now worried that her hard-working employee would quit, exacerbating an already dire situation. She also felt guilty for pushing down so much work: We directors are forced to treat our employees the way our bosses treat us, giving them ever greater amounts of work with ever more impossible deadlines. Accomplishing all this work only gets us more work. There is no such thing as capacity; it is assumed that we can always take on something more.

Unlike some managers, my boss always gives me public credit for my work and enthusiastically compliments its quality, and for that I am grateful. But there is never any acknowledgment of the nights, weekends and vacation days it costs me to produce that work. I once woke up with a fever, congestion and body aches. Too ill to shower, dress, and drive to my office, I called in sick. At 7:15 I sat down in my home office and worked, with a 20-minute break for lunch, until 5 p.m. So much for sick time.

But, actually, I was told by an HR director several years ago that the aggregate number of sick days taken by employees at my college has escalated, and that senior management is aware that much of our increased health care costs are due to treatments and medications for anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and other stress-related disorders.

As a result of this intelligence, I thought our bosses would consider that they might be driving us relentlessly. But their demands have not abated, even when they could. I served on a committee that required onerous amounts of clerical work from its members. There was sufficient money in the committee’s budget to engage a student worker to take meeting notes and handle some of the other paperwork the committee generated (and at the same time, be a part of an important college-wide initiative). But the committee’s senior manager, a process-oriented person who enjoyed generating reams of paper, flatly refused to hire administrative help, leaving the members with so much work that members began resigning.

I doubt that we would mind working this frenetically if we were rewarded by occasional exhilaration at having momentarily caught up. But to work like this day after day just to remain desperately behind is absurd.

We are overworked. Our bosses are overworked. Where is all this work originating? From the president? The Board of Trustees? Are their ambitions for the school no greater than ours, but their timetable less realistic?

I am now being asked to attend evening functions on behalf of the college. But, frankly, that’s where I might have to draw the line. After all, my nights are reserved for doing the overflow work I can’t possibly accomplish during my days.

P.S. After I wrote this, I mustered the courage to ask for more staff. On reviewing the case I presented for (including examples of typical days at work), my manager admitted that it was compelling. She has arranged for me to have more staff. Oh, and to take on more responsibilities ...

Barbara Mainwaring is the pseudonym of a middle manager at a private university on the East Coast.

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Comments

Affluenza

There was a PBS documentary about 10 years ago on just this phenomenon in American work life. Speedup. The video is called “Affluenza.” It appears a little dated already, but the speedup it describes has continued. We should ask where speedup is coming from. Technology? Back in the 70s it was my understanding that technology would create more leisure time.

Perhaps civilization is aching for a major paradigm shift toward more bottom-up, decentralized production and consumption.

See www.parecon.org (Wait a couple seconds for this address to redirect.)

Or use http://zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm

This website is a collection of essays about Participatory Economics, born of a book by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, Princeton UP, 1991. That book is a mathematical treatise. A lay version came out in ‘03 called _Parecon_, by Verso Press. A compelling idea. Questions remain, of course. But it argues that we don’t need to work like this to produce and consume what we need. And we can educate ourselves differently.

G. Marconi, at 7:25 am EDT on August 10, 2007

Bravo!

Congratulations, Barbara, for having the guts to expose the seedy under-belly of college administration.

While I love my job- truly love it- with its wonderful boss and administrative assistant, and challenging issues that run the gamut, August is a particularly difficult month to get through for anyone at the University.

Home computers and PDA’s have made even vacation and sick days impossible to take. I respond to email generally though 11 PM and start again at 5 or 6 the next morning. If I leave the “crackberry” at home for a true vacation day, I return to 4 or 5 dozen messages that must be responded to ASAP. We are all used to that instant-service, how do we break this cycle?

Director of This & That, at 8:15 am EDT on August 10, 2007

Yes, technology might have been our savior, were it not for affluenza. But a more common point made by faculty on my campus is that we are hired to work 10 months (10-month contracts) but the vast majority of us work year-round. And the administration expects it of us, as when they mandated this summer that we enter our c.v. information in their newly adopted software to generate annual reports. As the university administration “raises the bar” for tenure and promotion expectations in their pursuit of equal or better positions at more prestigious and better-paying institutions, faculty are left to work 12 months for 10 months compensation. At least our administrators are compensated for each of their months’ worth of work.

Michael, at 8:30 am EDT on August 10, 2007

Bias against hiring “Beauracrats”

I have worked in college administration for the past twenty plus years. At one school that I worked for eleven years I started with four staff and ended with three staff when I left. During that time regulatory changes increased by a third, budgets increased, new programs were added...and the inevitable happened, we fell behind in our work.

We were roundly criticized for this, and a panel was put together to examine this “complex” problem. However, the leader of the panel told us right from the beginning that we could procure new technology, streamline operations and examine best practices, but we would get no new staff.

The conclusion; we had already adopted all of the best practices, automated and streamlined as much as was possible. In fact, we taught the people on the panel a trick or two, but we would get no new staff.

If it were not so absurd it would be funny!

The problem is not complex, and the solution is simple — hire more people.

It is like blowing up a balloon, it will only take so much hot air before it bursts.

Bob, at 8:30 am EDT on August 10, 2007

Choice and Lifestyle

As someone who has worked in both Canada and the U.S. public postsecondary intsitutions, I have found work to be plentiful on North American campuses. To me, working in higher education is a matter of choice and life style. Personally I enjoy the pace and diversity of our work!

Clayton smith, Vice-Provost, Students & Registrar at University of Windsor, at 9:00 am EDT on August 10, 2007

I am one of those straddling both demanding worlds, as a faculty member (teaching 3 courses) who also chairs a division (with 25 faculty).

Rising to the workload (some of it self-created), demanding perfection, and tolerating no time boundaries, is an addiction.

Although I rarely take my own advice (I too am hooked), I offer two suggestions:

1) Triage. Doctors must do it when lives are at stake. Surely we can do it with reports and administrivia.2) Just say no. We advocate this with our students’ addictions, yet fail to recognize or address our own.

Please sign me: “Complaining is Easier”

Julie Empric, at 9:45 am EDT on August 10, 2007

Dear Colleagues ...

Great article. I’d love to take time to share my thoughts but I’ve got several unrealistic deadlines to meet!

On time and under budget, at 9:50 am EDT on August 10, 2007

I agree with Bob. The more efficient you become and increase your productivity the more you are asked to do until you are crushed by the weight. You can no longer streamline, improve on the technology etc...you reach your limit or as I have come to do work late and weekends to insure your unit survives.

Ann, at 9:55 am EDT on August 10, 2007

Please do not forget that the more often you pull off a miracle, producing the improbable against the impossible deadline, the more often it will be assumed that you are capable of (and even enjoy) accomplishing insane amounts of work.I’m a professional staff member worked to the bone while my faculty significant other is complaining about having to finally sit down to draft some syllabi after a nice summer hiatus. He has learned to bite his tongue around me and save it for the faculty lounge. :-)

Lynn, PR Administrator at Public University, at 11:10 am EDT on August 10, 2007

I agree with some of what the writer says in that we as administrators get asked to do more, and often have less (money, people, time) with which to do it. But, as someone who has worked outside the academy, this is not new to me. It has always been a fact of life.

I have a very clear memory of working in an environment where I paid a tidy sum to park blocks away from my downtown office, only saw brick and concrete on the walk to my office, and had a far more incidental contact with other employees and customers —not lifelong relationships. I had some of the same stresses (budget, people, productivity) as I have now, but it wasn’t nearly as meaningful.

Like most relationships, I think it’s important for us to reflect on the reasons we got into this career. After all, we are in a “relationship” with our career and institutions at some level.Some of the things I appreciate the most...even the ugliest college campus is prettier than many other work places, that I am in an enviroment that gets to recognizes that we are not all the ssme, and where our “customers” are those who are creative, and have big plans for the futurre. As frustrating as it is, what a privilege to walk that journey with students. We pick up the pieces, mediate conflicts, and have to constantly reevaluate our priorities in our work.

Yes, I believe that we are asked to leap tall buildings in a single try and move faster than a speeding bullet. I actually don’t know anyone who is professionally stimulated who is not asked to do the same, whatever the profession.

And I am grateful that we are in a profession where we can write about our experiences and even have an avenue to share our comments!

Jimmy Glass Half-full, Senior Administrator at Top 100 Liberal Arts College, at 11:10 am EDT on August 10, 2007

We are told to streamline administration — repeatedly. Yet when told to streamline academic offerings, the outcry was ridiculous. Having been a faculty member for 15+ years and now full-time in administration, I can say there has to be a balance between what we should be doing, what we can do, and what we realistically have the resources to do well. And faculty MUST be part of that conversation — at some point there has to be a recognition on the part of faculty that staff make their lives possible and easier. Without us, they would have no paychecks, no computer access, no air conditioning, and no trash removal. WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A TEAM!

Faculty/Administrator, at 11:10 am EDT on August 10, 2007

We’re all overworked

I don’t know anyone who works on a college or university campus who isn’t overworked. Administrators, faculty, and even though it isn’t mentioned here, library staff. I work in a library that is consistently understaffed, and is among the lowest paid units on campus. The custodian who empties my trash gets paid more than I do, despite my having a master’s degree. At least overworked administrators are generally paid a comfortable living wage. I don’t own a blackberry (too expensive) but i do answer emails and phone calls all hours of the day and night and on weekends, sick days and vacation days.

We have constant turnover, and are unable to fill some positions (because of the low pay), which increases the burden on everyone else in the department more. Our student worker budget has not increased in years, making us cut back on student help (our only way of getting more staff) each time the minimum wage goes up.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I think someone better start looking at the problem, because the meltdowns described in the article are happening in the administration offices, faculty offices and library work areas of many colleges and universities. There’s something wrong with that.

library paraprofessional, at 11:10 am EDT on August 10, 2007

tiered appreciation

‘Tis true that all in our society seem to be doing more work and working more often; yet there is no denying higher education’s caste system.

At my university, faculty often receive financial stipends for “extra” committee participation, to attend faculty development workshops (i.e. continuing ed.), and to develop/modify specific courses. Administators receive zero for extra assignments or for developing new programs.

What really frustrates me, however, is the salary structure. Everyone analyzes the “sticker-price” of salaries...but forget that most administrators work on a 12 month contract while faculty work a 9 month contract. In a specific example, a faculty and administrator might each earn a $45,000 annual salary — but when that is normalized to the contract, the faculty salary is actually equivilent to $60,000 (plus all the “extras” for extra work).

Do I want to be a faculty member? No. The headaches and challenges they face are significant and I have great respect for their intellect and passion for teaching.

Nonetheless, I remain puzzled by the way administrators — “staff” — are expected to be silent vassals who commit to a life of more work and less pay.

Observor, at 11:10 am EDT on August 10, 2007

The bloating of university administration

A larger issue, one not taken up in this article (which raises extremely relevant and valid points for those administrators caught in the middle), is the true utility of these larger university administrations, their increased workloads. And their true relevance to the mission of the university. Do we really need the sea-flood of marginal printed brochures, overwrought websites, and numerous pet administrative offices and “centers” that seem to spew forth and be created, furnished, staffed and supplied with every new change in upper-level adminstration as it attempts to slowly undo all the other centers and projects the previous administration created?

Since we don’t fund, support, and staff the academic side of the university adequately enough, we create remedial academic help centers for students, large support offices to monitor and assist in students’ transitions to college and progress thereon, faculty teaching initiative offices, &tc. All of which breed yet another layer of quasi-relevant diversion.

With regard to salaries, at least upper level adminstrators, who make considerably more than their faculty counterparts, DO have 12-month contracts for their pay instead of 9-month contracts. The problem with this (and here I’m really getting crotchety and cynical) is that this seems to give them even more extra time to dream up additional ancillary projects that divert more time, money, staff, and attention away from the central activities of the university.

a mild voice of dissent, at 1:05 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

Yes but...

Thanks, the article is cathartic. As the author points out, conversations about this topicare not welcomed by those up the chain in administration. I have to save my ranting for my family and have to tone it down even there because saying this too much makes it even harder.

The reality is that the line of business in a university is research and/or teaching. That mean, of course, if you are not in the direct pursuit of these, your position has less priority. My university has plenty of faculty who express their admiration for what overworked administrative staff can accomplish. That doesn’t change the fact that they will ask even more of us as they are called on to teach more, produce more articles or take part in more service.

That said, I still wouldn’t want to work in a corporate cubicle, the campus *is* lovely and working around students helps keep my outlook young... so I’m still counting myself lucky...

university admin, at 2:30 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

Administrative grief

There are two issues which seem to underlie this problem. First, the traditional university focused more on scholarship and was “run” by the faculty. Even the titular heads of the colleges were selected by the faculty and were “head masters” not presidents. Slowly the “reform” has moved to a top/down model with centralized management—even to the extent that we are all expected to file “reports” and these are to be reviewed/rejected by various persons as they move up the ranks. Presidents become intrusive into all decisions, most of which were made and finalized at the faculty level.

The second issue was first recognized by Sir C. N. Parkinson—his “Parkinson’s Laws” which describes the growth of buracracies, especially at middle management. It’s a fun read, but it applies to much of the “overwork” of the administration in higher education.

Personally, I never felt “overworked” as a faculty member or during my brief stint as a quasi administrator (I was a department chair) because I have always seen “work” as something I didn’t enjoy. So, if an administrator is overworked, I would suggest he/she think about the type of job in which he/she is engaged.

Fred Flener, Regired, at 4:15 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

Time on your hands

I agree with most of what has been said or implied here except that both the author and several respondents have plenty of time to write...

KED, College President, at 4:50 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

Ridiculous job descriptions abound

I work at a senior admin level in a research unit at a private university. I work hard and have many responsibilities. Sometimes I get tired of my job, and I start looking around at other positions in this university. I soon stop. When I see the totally ridiculous job descriptions, I can’t imagine how I could ever transition to those jobs. Who could ever cope with all those responsibilities? And who would want to for the pitiful sums of money on offer? (I used to work in government before higher ed, and I earn the same now as I did eight years ago in that sector, following several pay rises over the years.) None of them say “Needs to be superhuman” but some of them DO say “Needs a sense of humor.” What does that tell you?

Private University Administrator, at 6:45 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

Oh Yes ... I Feel Nine Haikus Coming On

From Bravo ...

Congrats Barbara. / Poor girl ... you’re workin’ too hard. / But I sympathize!

From College of Education Profs ...

Life’s so hard dear girl. / We E-D-Ds share your pain. / The profs have it made.

From Ann ...

I’m waaaay competent. / So the prez heaps on more work. / Gee, it’s not worth it.

From the Associate Vice President of Admissions ...

Who’s most important? / Not students ... not professors ... / Administration!

From the Vice President for Academic Affairs ...

I once was a prof. / Got frontal lobotomy. / Now I’m a V. P.

From A First-Grade Teacher ...

Who are these whiners? / I’ll tell them about real work. / Important work too!

From Jonathan’s Mom ...

My son went to State. / I struggled to pay his way / And that of these jerks.

From an assembly line worker ...

Who are these damned wimps? / Soft jobs ... great hours ... easy work. / Least you’ve got a job.

From Barbara Mainwaring ...

Can’t tell you my name. / My stuff’s waaay too powerful. / So it’s “mum’s the word.”

Frizbane Manley, at 6:50 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

a mild voice of dissent?

As faculty have shed co-responsibilities of dorm priors, bursars, chaplains, abbots, cooks, stewards, etc. — guess who has taken over those responsibilities?

And as education has become a behemoth of state-directed entities, guess where the marching (reporting) orders have come from? Not from institutional administrators, but from Washington, D.C. and/or your state capitol (and from court decisions that madate un-funded actions on the part of your college/university).

While many aggressive faculty work their tails off to bring in more research dollars (ostensively to pay for “overhead"), the mild faculty seem to be the ones who sit back and complain.

Complain that no one is appointed to watch their children while they teach, complain that administrators are complaining, complain about the dwindling supply of truely educated high school graduates, complain that administrators issue too many new requirements (meant to increase enrollment to pay faculty salaries?) or requirements (meant to avoid crippling court judgements that could bankrupt many colleges) or requirements (meant to avoid chasing away students afraid of harassment and indoctrination by faculty), etc. etc.

All organizations have their worker bees and their sluggard, parasitic complainers; too many of the latter and soon that organization disappears.

The greater problem seems to be our current “bad capitalism” culture, with too many un-employed or under-employed and equally, too many “stars” or super-heroes who do not believe in mentoring, training, and human resource development.

Dr. F. Gump, at 7:00 pm EDT on August 10, 2007

a vp’s perspective

I began the article feeling much sympathy for (and agreement with) the author’s perspective. In particular, her comment that common faculty views of administrators were perhaps the result of a natural oppressed/oppressor perspective rang true. But then — somewhat ironically — she adopts the SAME perspective, sliding into a screed about unsympathetic, demanding, and unreasonable bosses. I’m an Academic VP, and I feel constantly overworked — caught in a Sisyphean cycle from which I’ll never break free. I’ve quit adding up the hours I work each week because it is depressing to see the total, and there are NO nights — except those in which I’m representing the University at some function — in which I don’t spend at least a few hours doing emails. Don’t misinterpret — I do like my job (I often love it) — but we’re all in the same boat paddling madly against a current that never seems to let up. The causes of this reality are complex and probably not fully understood by any of us, but my point is simply that the problem is pervasive among administrators — all adminstrators that I know. The president at my school — who, in truth, often dumps tremendous amounts of work on my senior staff colleagues (some of this work, of course, becomes the workload of those who report to us) — works harder than any of us. Maybe that’s part of the problem...our schools are led by presidents who become presidents BECAUSE they work so hard, and are simply expecting the same of those who work for them. Whatever the explanation, the problem is pervasive and shapes the lives of all administrators, not just those at the middle tier of institutional life. By the way, as I write this (at 11:00 p.m. on a Friday night) the “ding” of my email inbox has rung three times.

Academic VP, at 5:10 am EDT on August 11, 2007

Note the conjuring trick?

The lament includes the rhetorical slight of hand of including the dietitian and the superintendent of the heating plant as “administrators.” But it is not from those quarters that the overwork comes.

And the lament fails to recognize that much of the overwork is self-inflicted. There is much that could be done to reduce the administrative burden on faculty and on the socially necessary administrators that might enhance the academic environment.

A Dean of Chemical Dependency? Please. Try this: identify any office within your university that includes “access” or “assessment” or “remediation” or “retention” as a principal objective. Take a hard look at that office. Ask yourself to what extent that office is doing work that the elementary and secondary schools failed to do. Consider carefully whether its presence contributes to the kind of academic environment that will keep your university out of the upper reaches of the U.S. News rankings.

Then look carefully at any office that claims to be fostering “diversity.” Is it really a sinecure for protest constituencies that might have been innovative forty years ago who continue to enjoy a good wallow in the past?

The post did provide me with some entertainment, but it fails to convince.

Stephen Karlson, Northern Illinois, at 10:00 am EDT on August 11, 2007

All Things

All things to all people all the time. That’s the syndrom. Every higher education institution wants to be harvard like and a junior college (without the title) and a vocational technical school, and asttract and hold the elite students still in high school, the once-upon-a-time traditional students, the older students, the aged students, and students from everywhere outside the schools used to be geographic service area and mission statement. Schools don’t want a nich they want the nation, and the profits of an empire. Dang, no wonder everybody is tired. Conquest is hard. it is hard.

Joe Hagy, at 1:20 pm EDT on August 12, 2007

Why do Faculty-Admins Retain Their Admin Position?

There is an important but rarely addressed issue about * faculty members * who become administrators.

Many administrators are tenured faculty members who are appointed to administrative posts. These faculty-administrators leave 9-month faculty appointments and assume 12-month administrative appointments.

Faculty-administrators could return to their rank and file faculty position, if they so chose. Such people would return to a 9-month schedule, where they would * not * have to work summers and have no summer workload.

Why do faculty-administrators, who whine about summer workloads, choose to stay in administration rather than returning to the faculty?

Why, indeed?

Anon, anon at anon, at 4:15 am EDT on August 13, 2007

bunk

Researchers have been tracking the amount of time people have for labor, leisure, etc. since the 1960’s and we have more free time today than ever (see the book, the Progressive Paradox). We feel busier, though, because we have more choices with our free time. Overwhelmed by the choices, and engaging many more of them than in the past, we feel overwhelmed. But a fact is a fact — we spend less time on work than we have since it has been tracked. If you are overwhelmed or feel busy, you need to manage your time better.

I think to be a successful, good faculty member you have to work hard and put in the time. But if you want to coast and do your 35 hours a week with 3 months off, there are lots of opportunities. Fortunately, I think most faculty do want to do a good job and thus, for the most part, work hard.

I think the same thing goes for Deans and Directors and other mid-level administrators — there are those who work hard and those that coast (although the coasters never last long unless they have political power and the support of a board or president). I do think VPs and Presidents are over-extended with their time because most of their day is spent making people feel better about their work environment (or convincing them to stay or leave) and gathering consensus for decisions they plan on making along anyway.

PS, at 4:15 am EDT on August 13, 2007

Which industry are we talking about? My husband is a Director of Regulatory Affairs for a major medical device company. Every single comment made here applies to his position as well. There IS no solution at a campus/state level. Any effective changes would need to come from legislation that originates in Washington and applies to all industry (and education IS an industry).

Wife of a Director, at 12:50 pm EDT on August 13, 2007

A wise insight

Mainwaring reminded me of the wisdom of Solomon, who said:

“I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.” —Eccl.4:1

Not, of course, that administrators should be blamed for all acts of oppression...

NOLAvol, at 8:35 am EDT on August 15, 2007

Check out

...a blog on the same topic.

www.leaveworkbehind.blogspot.com

Am Kestrel, at 5:45 am EDT on August 19, 2007

To VP:

Perhaps you overlooked the sentences in my column that state, “We are overworked. Our bosses are overworked.” The bosses, as stated earlier in the piece, are deans and vice presidents.

Barbara Mainwaring, Director, at 4:10 pm EDT on September 16, 2007

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