Administrative Overload Supersized

At a time when most Americans are beyond belt-tightening in trying to trim expenses, some colleges and universities are still having a hard time shedding that administrative bloat. “According to an analysis by Jeffrey M. Stonecash, a professor of political science here, the amount of tuition dollars spent on the classroom is up slightly, by about 3 percent between the 2007-8 and 2010-11 academic years,” Robin Wilson writes of Syracuse University in an article which appears in The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 7, 2011. “Meanwhile, tuition dollars directed at helping cover the university’s administrative costs have increased by about 28 percent over the same time period.”

“Put another way, the amount of money from tuition receipts that goes toward administrative expenditures increased by $22.3-million—to around $100-million—over the last four years, while the amount of money from tuition receipts that goes toward academics increased by just $5.7-million, to $190-million, over the same time period, according to Mr. Stonecash’s analysis.”

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.

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