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September 22, 2009 1:50 PM
Bill Clinton on Higher Ed
The Clinton Global Initiative starts today, and Pat Garofolo of The Wonk Room was in on a meeting Clinton convened with a small group of progressive bloggers prior to the annual event’s kickoff.
Clinton noted that “higher education institutions are pricing themselves into America’s decline,” and that we are therefore going to “have to change the delivery system in higher education.” One possibility Clinton highlighted was increasing the roles of community colleges (which 17 states have authorized to provide four-year college credits). It’s telling that Clinton sees the situation as dire enough to discuss changing “the delivery system” for higher education itself, rather than focusing on ways to control the costs of four-year institutions.
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Prof. U on September 24, 2009 3:15 AM:
Colleges and universities suffer some the same problem as corporations - too many Vice Presidents. I am a college professor and the primary bread winner for a family of four. For the first five years of my job (as a tenure track full-time professor) my income qualified our family for HUD low income housing. The number of students at my college has increased by 30% in the last 15 years and the number of faculty has increased 5%, but the number of administrators has increased 80% in that time. When students wonder where all their tuition money goes I can tell you it is not to the faculty.
People outside of academia continue to think that college professor get paid way too much to spend nine months out of the year standing at the front of a lecture hall talking at students. Good teachers do much more than that, and the notion that we only work when classes are in session is ridiculous. We work year round doing research, updating our courses, attending conferences, and (even though we have more administrators) doing more work running our institutions.
Every time a new administrator is hired , that person creates a set of committees and initiatives and faculty have to serve on all of these committees. As the number of administrators goes up our workload increases, but our pay does not.
High T. on September 24, 2009 10:16 AM:
I haven't worked at a university, but I've worked at two high schools. I agree completely with Prof. U. While I can't speak for the comittees, I can say that the Administration has the nicest computers and the nicest offices, and there is never talk of cutting back their pay.
Recently, in a Baltimore high school, a principal fired his entire teaching staff and made them all re-apply for there job. That didn't include the administrative workers. It never includes the administrative workers.
I have a friend who teaches at a local university, and the pay isn't that great either. he barely squeaks by and in addition to his classes his is always working.
The School Complex (I think we should lump in all schools) has become too bloated with administrative workers and the like. As a child we didn't have air conditioning in our schools, now schools are designed to only have some form of climate control. The extra costs are built into the entire process.
I'll stop here, but this is a major problem as my wife is now trying to get her bachelor's degree. The expenses are excrutiating.