- Joined
- Apr 4, 2023
- Messages
- 354
A great variety of takes here, some badly mistaken (e.g., the "awash in money" take), but most having some degree of validity.
From my perspective as an externally-funded researcher for 20 years and long-time chair of a math department (that dealt with ~7,000 students per academic year) at a middle-sized state university, the main problems with university costs have three distinct (but related) roots:
1) Universities are uniquely susceptible to the "Baumol effect" where the costs go up specifically because productivity does not increase.
I say "uniquely" because universities badly aggravate the Baumol effect by:
2) A constant "growth mindset" that induces strong groupthink in university administration.
Many (most?) administrators are looking to climb the ladder to the $200-500K levels of top senior administration where their decision-making power is nearly unchallenged. And you don't climb to the top of that ladder by downsizing, cutting, or rocking the boat.
When you're looking to leave your current position and move to the next rung up the administration ladder, you will go to the interview touting all the great things you created, grew, or expanded (complete with ginned up accounts of all the positive outcomes from that growth). The reason you will do that? Because that's exactly what the recruiting committee you will interview with will be looking for.
This is mostly because at least half of those committee members are looking to make their own move to the next rung of the ladder and will need to show all the things they created, grew, or expanded. That means getting more people on the team that can create growth (whether it is reasonable/needed or not). So, it's total groupthink with "existing growth mindset" begetting "more growth mindset."
Quickest way to take yourself out of the administration ladder-climbing game? Question growth and push for true outcome-based evidence to support any proposed growth. You will be immediately removed from the administration's decision-making process the day you demonstrate that you are not a groupthinker.
3) University governing bodies made up of members chosen due to political patronage that are clueless to all the above and in fact are highly susceptible to judging administration solely based on the growth they have produced.
Pretty much the only way senior university administration can impress their governing boards (made up mostly of politically connected people from the private sector) is to impress them with all the growth that they are responsible for since the governors come from private business where "if you're not growing, you're dying!"
IMO, this mantra is totally inappropriate for high education, it feeds administrator's insane need to grow (with no regard to the future revenue that will be required to maintain that growth decades later) and yields unsustainable costs with no increase in output (per the Baumol effect described above).
Rather than provide critical oversight over inappropriate proposals for growth that administrators constantly provide, they tend to be totally wow-ed by those proposals and get all starry-eyed over how forward-thinking administration is. In most cases this is BS and the only reason administration can get away with it is because the governors simply haven't a clue as to how a university actually works.
And not only does administration do nothing to resolve this cluelessness, they actively maintain it because that disconnect is exactly how they thrive (and will effectuate their movement to the next rung up the administrative ladder by generating a record of growth).
Summary:
Overall, the current state of university cost is a complicated problem where one can point to any number of causes, but the real answer is that there is fundamental rot of the foundations of the whole system, with faculty, administration, governing boards, and politicians all contributing their part to that rot.
As I said in another thread, the whole situation can be summed up by Eric Hoffer's famous (and stunningly insightful) quote:
"Every great cause starts as a movement, evolves into a business, and then degenerates into a racket."
Absolutely describes and explains what we have seen in higher education over the last 70 years.
From my perspective as an externally-funded researcher for 20 years and long-time chair of a math department (that dealt with ~7,000 students per academic year) at a middle-sized state university, the main problems with university costs have three distinct (but related) roots:
1) Universities are uniquely susceptible to the "Baumol effect" where the costs go up specifically because productivity does not increase.
I say "uniquely" because universities badly aggravate the Baumol effect by:
i.) administration mindlessly pushing smaller class sizes in the hope of better student outcomes
ii.) administration and faculty finding ways to gin up reasons to not implement clear productivity enhancers like AI and online education (both done right).
2) A constant "growth mindset" that induces strong groupthink in university administration.
Many (most?) administrators are looking to climb the ladder to the $200-500K levels of top senior administration where their decision-making power is nearly unchallenged. And you don't climb to the top of that ladder by downsizing, cutting, or rocking the boat.
When you're looking to leave your current position and move to the next rung up the administration ladder, you will go to the interview touting all the great things you created, grew, or expanded (complete with ginned up accounts of all the positive outcomes from that growth). The reason you will do that? Because that's exactly what the recruiting committee you will interview with will be looking for.
This is mostly because at least half of those committee members are looking to make their own move to the next rung of the ladder and will need to show all the things they created, grew, or expanded. That means getting more people on the team that can create growth (whether it is reasonable/needed or not). So, it's total groupthink with "existing growth mindset" begetting "more growth mindset."
Quickest way to take yourself out of the administration ladder-climbing game? Question growth and push for true outcome-based evidence to support any proposed growth. You will be immediately removed from the administration's decision-making process the day you demonstrate that you are not a groupthinker.
3) University governing bodies made up of members chosen due to political patronage that are clueless to all the above and in fact are highly susceptible to judging administration solely based on the growth they have produced.
Pretty much the only way senior university administration can impress their governing boards (made up mostly of politically connected people from the private sector) is to impress them with all the growth that they are responsible for since the governors come from private business where "if you're not growing, you're dying!"
IMO, this mantra is totally inappropriate for high education, it feeds administrator's insane need to grow (with no regard to the future revenue that will be required to maintain that growth decades later) and yields unsustainable costs with no increase in output (per the Baumol effect described above).
Rather than provide critical oversight over inappropriate proposals for growth that administrators constantly provide, they tend to be totally wow-ed by those proposals and get all starry-eyed over how forward-thinking administration is. In most cases this is BS and the only reason administration can get away with it is because the governors simply haven't a clue as to how a university actually works.
And not only does administration do nothing to resolve this cluelessness, they actively maintain it because that disconnect is exactly how they thrive (and will effectuate their movement to the next rung up the administrative ladder by generating a record of growth).
Summary:
Overall, the current state of university cost is a complicated problem where one can point to any number of causes, but the real answer is that there is fundamental rot of the foundations of the whole system, with faculty, administration, governing boards, and politicians all contributing their part to that rot.
As I said in another thread, the whole situation can be summed up by Eric Hoffer's famous (and stunningly insightful) quote:
"Every great cause starts as a movement, evolves into a business, and then degenerates into a racket."
Absolutely describes and explains what we have seen in higher education over the last 70 years.
