collegehelp

vossron-
I think "bloat" is an apt expression for what I am trying to capture. I don't know how you can put a positive spin on it when 15-25% of your expenditures are on administrative overhead. What would the for-profit private sector think of a business run that way? What would parents think if they know how tuition money was being allocated? You can call it inefficient, topheavy or whatever. It is not a good thing.

I think concept of "Institutional Support divided by Total Expenses" is a pretty common way to measure the "leanness" of operations although it is evidently more complicated than I first thought.

interesteddad-
I think they are simply full-time, not FTE, because there were separate figures available on the IPEDS website for part-time.

hoedown-
I think academic conferences and the like can potentially be stimulating and rewarding. They have the potential to be valuable to the students back on campus if the faculty attending finds cutting edge presentations, useful ideas. Whether there is, in fact, a payoff depends on the participant's active engagement and on whether the conference is cutting edge. But administrative conferences are generally a waste.