Dartblog

A few weeks ago we took a look at Professor Benjamin Ginsberg’s new book: The Fall of the Faculty, The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters, and today the Wall Street Journal joins the conversation with a favorable review. Some excerpts:

Mr. Ginsberg argues that universities have degenerated into poorly managed pseudo-corporations controlled by bureaucrats so far removed from research and teaching that they have barely any idea what these activities involve.

From 1975 to 2005, the costs of attending an American university tripled. During that period, faculty-to-student ratios stayed relatively constant, but administrator-to-student ratios ballooned. The number of administrators increased by 85%, and the number of staffers rose by 240%.

Forty years ago professors themselves managed university affairs, often spending limited stints in administration as a professional obligation before returning to teaching and research. But as professional administrators have proliferated, professors, having little stomach for endless committee meetings and inane business jargon, have been happy to give up their managerial responsibilities. (Asked if he would continue serving on an especially noxious committee, Mr. Ginsberg replied: “If offered a choice between another year of service and a year of incarceration at Abu Ghraib prison, I would have to give the matter some thought.”) As a result, however, professors have sacrificed much of their influence over their own institutions.

Let’s hope that the Dartmouth faculty’s two votes this May, which challenged the veracity of the administration’s budget figures, point to a renaissance of faculty involvement in the management the College.