Our June 2 Hoard's Dairyman Intel, "Students are bankrolling public college" drew the largest reader response to date. There is good reason for the interaction. Tuition and other costs associated with attending college have gone up more than double the rate of inflation for a number of decades.
With that additional spending, one would think that the quality of education - or at least the number of educators teaching students - would have risen with this newly generated revenue. Unfortunately, that has hardly been the case.
While teaching positions have been relatively stagnant on many major university campuses, the number of administrative roles has been growing by leaps and bounds. In nearly every case, these administrators are not teaching students. While some of those administrative positions have been needed to cover the growing list of mandated government reports, most of these newly employed bureaucrats simply reflect unchecked growth on university campuses.
On one major campus, the university president is finally doing something about the matter. Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has taken on a new role as Purdue's president. Since taking over, he has frozen tuition for the first time in 36 years, reported The Wall Street Journal. He didn't stop there as he cut the cost of student food by 10 percent and initiated a volume-purchasing plan to take advantage of the school's large-scale purchasing power.
While those are positive first steps, he must now tackle the growing ranks of administrators.
"At Purdue, there are now 75 percent more administrators and staff on payroll than there were 13 years ago," reported The Wall Street Journal. That tally totals 2,221 administrative personnel and 2,018 academic teaching staff. In 2001, those numbers were close to 1,750 and 1,250 in favor of those actually teaching students . . . the real role of universities.
To be sure, Daniels efforts have not been well-received by everyone at Purdue. However, students are taking notice. After the Purdue band spelled out "Mitch" in formation during halftime of the Purdue-Notre Dame home football game, Daniels received a standing ovation as he came onto the field, noted The Wall Street Journal.
Purdue is not alone on this matter of overloaded nonteaching staff. The issue has become so bad at some schools that university leaders have placed a gag or silenced staff from talking about the issue.
So much for the premise of "academic freedom."
Editor's note: For those who want to go back and read previous conversations related to the Hoard's Dairyman Intel article, "Students are bankrolling public college", you may click on the following items:
Reader Response: Focus on education, not buildings
Reader Response: I'm swimming in student debt
Reader Response: Tuition costs are complex
Reader Response: Buildings versus education
Reader Response: The reason students are funding colleges
