University Administration Bloat

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Tuesday, May 26. 2015

University Administration Bloat

University Administration Bloat: The Tail the Size of the Dog

When I went to boarding school, every administrator also taught (except the clerical staff). Even the head librarian taught (Russian). Every coach taught. The Headmaster taught. When I went to college, every dean taught. The college president taught.

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 15:41 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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You would think in a teaching institution the continued ability to teach and relate to each new class of students would be considered mission critical.

#1 tyree on 2015-05-26 22:28 (Reply)

why would you think that?

#1.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2015-05-27 01:18 (Reply)

The purpose of the institution is having a student body that learns something over a 4 year period. Having a bunch of administrators on campus who don't teach drives up the cost of education without directly adding to the learning. I worked for a adult education company for years and most of their administrators were teachers, the man who founded the company was a teacher, and as long as their focus was on teaching, they thrived.

#2 tyree on 2015-05-27 09:20 (Reply)

I think the primary goal of any kollege is to promote its own brand (the image of high quality students and national prominence) and keep money flowing in from alums, grants, govt supported student loans to anyone who wants one, etc., thus: football, beer and girls. as for actually educating the students, who actually believes that's important? you don't need a degree in wymyn's studies to be a barista.

#2.1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2015-05-27 09:49 (Reply)

From an ontological standpoint, the essence-accident distinction had been invoked to deal with the “contradiction” involved in thinking. But, as was suggested earlier, the introduced essence-accident or reality-appearance distinction appealed to here will, itself instantiate the relation of determinate negation. That is, the substrate underlying the properties—the thing which bears the properties—cannot be some “I know not what:” it must itself have some thinkable content. This will lead thought to the positing of forces or powers as the true defining essences of such individual substances. Forces and powers cannot be thought of in this way. They are forms of objectivity that we posit only in as much as they have effects and, moreover, they are such that they, in some sense, dissipate themselves in their effects.

#2.1.1 Judy Debar on 2015-05-27 10:35 (Reply)

Best comment ever!

#2.1.1.1 Bird Dog on 2015-05-27 10:39 (Reply)

Sokal could not have done better. Like Bird Dog says, a masterful comment.
Your comment reminds me of my experience with the GRE. I took the GRE 15 years after taking the SAT. I found some of the passages in the Verbal part of the GRE to be difficult to comprehend. I decided that since those passages were verbiage to me, I would choose the answer that had the most verbiage. I doubt that this approach harmed me on the GRE, as my GRE Verbal score was almost identical to my SAT Verbal score from 15 years before.

#2.1.1.2 Gringo on 2015-05-27 11:37 (Reply)

Academics and Administrators figured out that Collages/Universities are really just Idiot Factories for people who would never survive the real world. If you have a big ego, the you teach, if you are more of the shy retiring type, you work in Admin. Every year they hand out degrees that no one in the real world wants and to make it look like they have value (required to suck in the next round of financing) they have to hire these idiots themselves. It's much easer to hid the horrible education you're providing if you're not constantly parading it in front of students so most of the jobs would naturally be in Admin.

If you fail to get on at a University, then well I'm afraid you'll probably have to get a job as a Social Media Professional for some company with too many people working in HR.

#3 Vince on 2015-05-28 02:29 (Reply)

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Tuesday, May 26. 2015

University Administration Bloat