You forgot to eliminate the entire IT department. Students can all use personal google emails and free clouds. And tether their phone for internet. No needed for bloated IT department! Even more millions are saved.
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Oooh, and no problem sending private information over the internet rather than hosting a secure student portal. That can’t possibly go wrong.
It costs a lot to run a modern college.
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Heck, we all went to college and made it through lining up at the computer center with our punch cards. It’s a little time-consuming, but sure saves on costs! And remember when the dining halls closed at 7? Kid can’t make it for dinner until later? That’s why ramen noodles in the dorm room were invented…
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The dining center at my D22’s college closes at 7. I don’t think it’s uncommon at smaller schools to have limited hours (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Fortunately, the food is very good. Students just have to plan to eat when it’s open.
You know I love your ideas, @blossom!
The United States is the only country where higher ed is delivered on the Sleep Away Camp (with some classes attached) Model.
When students can live in apartment style housing near the campus and aren’t required to get a meal plan, no need to hire nutritionists. When students can join a local gym or civic sports teams (or not), no need to hire coaches or athletic directors. And students can go to a regular clinic for health and therapy needs, just as they manage to do in the 18 years leading up to college and in all the years after. And the legal team can be cut in half when the dominant cultural idea of college isn’t Animal House.
When even America’s commuter colleges (e.g. UMASS Boston) insist on providing all of the above, yes the cost is ridiculous.
I know people here love their Sleep Away Camps, but I continue to wish for even just one stripped down European-style university that would provide a world class education without the bloat.
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They could make all meals vegetarian or vegan to reduce costs (meat costs more than beans and lentils). As a bonus, that would also make it easier to accommodate some religious dietary restrictions.
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Heh. I refer to the dorm/food/sports level of college as “All-Inclusive”. While my kid is at a “Roll-Your-Own” version. Still a state school, but no food service, only one “dorm” (which is an apartment building just like the one my kid lives in, but closer to campus). Students can take public transit (free) or drive to the flagship campus and participate in sports or take 1 class a term. But, for the most part, they stay at their non-flagship campus and get educated just fine. For in-state folks, it’s quite a good deal. I’m not sure that anyone would choose to pay out-of-state rates for it, though.
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Actually, it exists - Minerva.
They even move students to lower cost locations like Hyberabad and Buenos Aires during their 2nd and 3rd year and they take classes online. Even that way, it’s much more expensive than the founders thought.
Unfortunately American students overwhelmingly prefer the traditional model.
https://www.minerva.edu/undergraduate/
Bring your own protein (BYOP).
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LOL, it is increasingly looking like my C25 will be attending a “Roll-Your-Own” (or as close to it as we can get.) Thanks for the fun term, I’ll be using it.
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Minerva, with its all-online classes and no set campus, is definitely not a typical European-style university. (It is stripped down, though.)
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The sarcasm of your “modest proposal” is noted, but I’ll just suggest that some of those offices might well be merged, or at least headed by someone who isn’t pulling down a vice-chancellor’s salary.
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Yes, I’m sure some of these roles can be merged or be made more efficient. But most of the people who yell and scream about the proliferation of non-faculty roles really seem to want to go back to the 19th century. And yes, it is easier and cheaper to run an institution when only affluent white men attend, and are mainly preparing for the ministry or the academy.
Universities have invested in a lot of functional expertise which only benefits a particular slice of the student body. But some of that expertise really isn’t fungible. The office of risk management can’t easily add counseling and therapy to its mandate, and the analysts who monitor the use of federal research grants can’t moonlight as disability access experts. This is the sad under-belly of our society-- can’t blame the colleges for responding to the needs of their constituents.
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No, but it may mean the model of private liberal arts colleges is no longer economically sustainable. Institutions and industries have life cycles.
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There’s no campus at all - students join the gym or pool in town, buy food at the supermarket and cook, etc. There’s only one “hall” for the students.
The “online” classes aren’t typical of European universities but the very pared down set up would be.
American students simply aren’t taking to it - fewer than 20% students are US residents.
Hard to know whether Americans are rejecting the lack of amenities, or the fact that they are required to take their classes online and move to a new location every semester. If I were attending an online college, I would want to take my classes from the location of my choosing, not some random city somebody sent me to.
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Well, they apply specifically for that (and the lower cost/essentials only) program. Students who don’t want to spend time abroad don’t apply, just like kids who don’t want to start abroad or in Oakland don’t take NU.in offers.
So, yes, it’s likely a mix of all differences with a typical 4 year degree that explains why few domestic applicants apply or attend.
I don’t fully accept the overall thrust of the claim, but stepping aside from that for a moment, can we at least agree there isn’t really a need for functions that used to be done by the director of an office or maybe a dean to be done by (someone with the salary of) a vice chancellor or such? The title (and salary) creep that’s gone on, that’s just kind of weird.
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I do agree that bureaucracies have to work pretty hard not to perpetuate themselves and that mission creep is a thing in any organization. Too often a “wouldn’t it be nice “ can become an organizational necessity over time.
For example, I worked at one public university where having a graduate assistant was seen as an inexpensive way to create a direct report. The department only had to come up with the stipend, but the tuition remission (the bulk of the cost) was hidden because it was absorbed by the university. It was also much easier to receive permission to add a GA. Result: a glut of underemployed GAs.
When the university transitioned to responsibility centered management (every department was responsible for their own costs, including electricity), many of the GA positions disappeared, other positions weren’t filled, and every department quickly became MUCH more energy efficient.
Some of my frustration with the article stems from two experiences working in provost offices on large public universities. In both cases the office was extraordinarily hard working and perpetually understaffed. Everyone with a “provost” in their title worked a minimum of 60 hours a week with a lot of early mornings and evenings. All of them were faculty members and several returned to the faculty after years of service. I keep in touch with one office and it has not grown in employees over the last 15 years. No new titles and no new “provosts” added.
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Regarding college closings, I had an observation that some colleges most at risk of failure tend to have a student body that is almost exclusively recruited athletes. I don’t know if that’s really true or not.
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