tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post3884672137271377364..comments2024-03-27T14:50:47.345-04:00Comments on <center>Sandwalk</center>: Thinking Like an AdministratorLarry Moranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05756598746605455848noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-78484702278090951152012-09-04T04:01:53.929-04:002012-09-04T04:01:53.929-04:00This type of thinking is rife in academia, in pseu...This type of thinking is rife in academia, in pseudo-academia, and in many other places. Take a look at the New York Times fora on education. The occasional Bill Gates and the occasional university president, a couple of authors, rarely any professors of education or students in education schools, never a teacher, and of course, no students.<br /><br />Most conferences on labor policy don't invite working people, or if they do in the U.S., rarely a union joe.<br /><br />Not to mention that, if one cares to review the literature on rating workers, say from the viewpoint of actually improving quality of work, the experts tend to agree that these rating processes are counterproductive. <br /><br />What else would managers and administrators do with their time if they didn't get in the way of the work?Ed Darrellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10056539160596825210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-20539684609194611512012-08-30T22:33:59.786-04:002012-08-30T22:33:59.786-04:00I could be wrong, as I am not in academia, but I u...I could be wrong, as I am not in academia, but I understand that at most institutions, very few faculty are eager to take on additional committee work.greg byshenknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-26862533452360916932012-08-30T12:27:47.148-04:002012-08-30T12:27:47.148-04:00Justo, stop hogging page space. Justo, stop hogging page space. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-69270573808981926542012-08-29T20:19:28.671-04:002012-08-29T20:19:28.671-04:00Does anyone understand the logic here?
Umm, no my...<i>Does anyone understand the logic here?</i><br /><br />Umm, no mystery here. Administrators do what profits administrators - more administrative "work". Works every time, everywhere, never fails. Like so many things in life, bureaucracy is self-perpetuating. <br />DKnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-84982853044267481912012-08-29T14:14:48.009-04:002012-08-29T14:14:48.009-04:00Yes, the logic is that which was pointed out by Ri...Yes, the logic is that which was pointed out by Richard Mitchell in The Graves of Academe years ago. Basically, if administrators allowed teachers to perform tasks like this it would (a) make it harder to justify having so many administrators and (b) make it harder to justify the relative salaries of administrators and teachers.<br /><br />Never forget: administration is a secondary task which is not actually important. It is not difficult to imagine a utopian school with no administrators (in a utopia, everything works out for the best, so there are no trivial details to worry about). It is certainly not difficult to imagine a school with only a handful of administrators -- thats' where we were a century ago. But the world in which we actually live has school laying off teachers, cutting teacher pay, cutting teacher benefits, in order to hire more and more administrators at quite high salaries.<br /><br />In order to make this sensible, administrators have to seize every task which they can possibly claim falls under the heading of "administration". Undoubtedly before long we'll see academic advisors who are not teachers and scholarship boards without teachers, because it requires more administrative hiring -- and if the Dean has 100 people under their box in the organization chart instead of 50, then obviously they need twice as much money to compensate them for all that responsibility.<br /><br />Meanwhile the students are in classes of 400, the professorial offices haven't been repainted since 1982, and the library has to sell advertising space to pay for electricity. But hey, at least it's all well-administrated, right?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37148773.post-40928390363319884762012-08-29T14:13:33.597-04:002012-08-29T14:13:33.597-04:00You already gave the answer: "In general, adm...You already gave the answer: "In general, administrators are reluctant to make radical changes" - given this, why would they pick a committee that is likely to support radical changes?<br /><br />"they have trouble thinking outside the box. Furthermore, most of them don't have time to think seriously about the issue." - of course it's also possible that it just didn't occur to them to include anyone outside of the usual list of suspects. The default option requires less thought.<br />konradnoreply@blogger.com