Administrative Staff Costs

Disease:  Rising Administrative Staff Costs

According to the Center For College Affordability And Productivity (2010), from 1997 to 2007, administrative staff costs at institutions of higher education from 22.6 percent to 26.1 percent.  The CCAP utilizes data from several sources and notes that this increase merely continues an earlier trend.  In comparison, during this same time period most business were cutting administrative costs and “going lean.”  Universities have been adding many non-curricular programs in leadership, community building, and residential life that simply did not exist two generations ago.  The report notes that the if the current hiring trends were to continue, staff would outnumber instructors at private four year colleges by 2014.   "...(T)he center's findings, combined with added research by The Chronicle to identify individual colleges, raise questions about priorities and provide fresh ammunition for critics of supercharged spending." (Brainard, Fain, & Masterson, 2009)

Solution:  Reduce administrative costs by filling some administrative positions with students, and eliminating some non-curricular programs altogether.

Many lower level staff positions can be filled with students.  For example, Rhodes College has a very successful program in which students gain meaningful work experience while the college is able to reduce its administrative costs.  (Rhodes College,n.d.) 

From 2007-2009 I served as a university chaplain to the University of Memphis.  I remember attending Residential Life meetings chaired by Dean Porter.  Looking around the room, and seeing about 40 people, I remember adding up the salaries and thinking that there was over a million dollars in salaries in the room, and that three quarters of these people would not have been there 40 years ago.  Their jobs simply did not exist 40 years ago.  I doubt many are truly needed or utilized by students.

As state funded institutions are typically receiving smaller appropriations, many are already looking to reduce administrative staff expenditures.  The following excerpt comes from the President’s office at the University of Houston reflecting a recommendation made during a discussion taking place at the University:

Reduce the size of the dean’s office:

o   Abolish the $150,000/year newly created position of strategic planner

o   Reduce the number of associate deans from four to two: one for undergraduate and one for graduate studies/research

o   Provide 10 (at most 11) months salaries, instead of 12 months, to the associate deans, and eliminate their stipends.

o   Salary increases given to faculty upon becoming administrator should be reset to their pre-administration salary once they return to regular faculty duty.

o   Replace relatively high-paid administrators, e.g., Director of Career Office, by a lower-paid person, or merge into related function, such as the Coop Director.

• Reduce/eliminate the assistant-to-the-associate etc positions.  (University Of Houston, n.d.)

The Center For College Affordability And Productivity (2010) suggests a modest 5% reduction in administrative staff is both feasible and advisable.

Brainard, J., Fain, P., & Masterson, K. (2009, April 24). Support-Staff jobs double in 20 years, outpacing enrollment. The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Retrieved from http://chronicle.com.ezproxy.cbu.edu:9000/article/Support-Staff-Jobs-Double-in/32284/

Center For College Affordability And Productivity (2010). 25 ways to reduce the cost of college. Washington, DC:  Retrieved from http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/uploads/25Ways_to_Reduce_the_Cost_of_College.pdf

Rhodes College (n.d.). Rhodes College / Rhodes Student Associate Program (RSAP). Retrieved October 16, 2011, from Center For College Affordability And Productivity (2010)

University Of Houston (n.d.). Cost-Saving Ideas. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from http://www.uh.edu/president/communications/budget-discussions/cost-saving-ideas/index.php