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fireside_blather t1_jd8yb37 wrote

Reduce the administrative headcount. That's low-hanging fruit.

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flagshipcopypaper t1_jd9j37z wrote

What’s that? Cut staff and student services and keep those middle-managers making six figures? Got it! -Colleges probably

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queen-of-unicorns t1_jdany23 wrote

As a community college advisor this is the problem. I make 45k a year and work my ass off for my students. Deans start at 120k and sit on their ass occasionally presenting our work as their success. It pisses me off. I will say the directors at my institution do put in the work. For reference I’m one step below Director. Directors report to Deans.

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[deleted] t1_jdasr47 wrote

[deleted]

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queen-of-unicorns t1_jdaused wrote

Our directors work hard. It's the Deans that have to go. Or at least not have as many of them. Some departments are really small. There is no need to have a Dean for each when a Director is more than enough.

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insecurestaircase t1_jdc3fis wrote

At my.community college, deans were also.professors and any professor could apply for the dean position if the dean no longer wanted to be dean.

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Pink_Slyvie t1_jd91tce wrote

And would do virtually nothing in the end, its barely a drop in the bucket.

The real answer cut the military budget and start funding education.

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jshrdd_ t1_jd9e4ba wrote

Heaven forbid we fund education and spreading knowledge instead of warfare and destruction. 🤔

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dtcstylez10 t1_jd9kf21 wrote

But then all the companies that make weapons for war will be losing out on their trillion dollar contracts and then can't find political campaigns for politicians who will continue to vote to increase the military budget and so on and so forth

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Jiveturkwy158 t1_jd9mfwt wrote

Don’t get me wrong I agree with the sentiment, but if psu got rid of 16/17 admins at 60k/yr (inclusive of benefits this is a reasonable cost per employee) it would save them a mil/yr. Seems like a good solution instead of hiking up costs even more.

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Jon3141592653589 t1_jdawxyk wrote

PSU has a $149M deficit for their FY23 budget. $1M is pennies in the couch, and a lot of lower-administrators actually serve key support roles. Something is horribly wrong.

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Pink_Slyvie t1_jd9ry48 wrote

And who should start doing their jobs?

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Roninkin t1_jd9vqh1 wrote

Have you ever seen the board of a college? They do no work their easy enough to abandon.

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Fried_Fart t1_jd94cyc wrote

Lmao

I think the two of you were talking about different things. Last I checked PSU doesn’t have a military 😂

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Pink_Slyvie t1_jd94rpe wrote

No. Cut the federal military budget, and reallocate that to social programs

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Fried_Fart t1_jd96qm3 wrote

Yes, I know that’s what you’re saying.

The person you replied to was talking about the administrative headcount of Universities, not the federal government

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Pink_Slyvie t1_jd96ujx wrote

I'm aware. That's hardly any money on that scale.

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Monkeytohs t1_jd98xsi wrote

You're apples to oranges here. Federal and State are two separate entities.

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MartianActual t1_jd993d7 wrote

On average university admins are 4x larger than they were in the 1990s. That is literally where most of the increased cost of tuition goes.

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Pink_Slyvie t1_jd9cbe0 wrote

Show me the numbers.

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Calint t1_jd9lkma wrote

Not OP, but here are some numbers I found.

During the 1980-1981 school year, public and private institutions spent $20.7 billion in total on instruction, and $13 billion on academic support, student services and institutional support combined, according to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics. By the 2014-2015 school year, total instructional costs had climbed to $148 billion, while the same grouping of administrative expenses had risen to $122.3 billion.

Put another way, administrative spending comprised just 26% of total educational spending by American colleges in 1980-1981, while instructional spending comprised 41%. Three decades later, the two categories were almost even: administrative spending made up 24% of schools’ total expenditures, while instructional spending made up 29%.

Forbes Article from 2017

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Pink_Slyvie t1_jd9m7lu wrote

These are not things to cut.

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Calint t1_jd9o1b7 wrote

That was not the question you asked in this thread. The claim was admins are 4x larger today than the 1990s. You said show the numbers. I provided numbers.

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epicchocoballer t1_jd98z3r wrote

Administrative bloat account for massive amount of (wasted) spending in education and healthcare settings.

Social programs account for a bigger percentage of the federal budget than the military does.

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BluCurry8 t1_jd9a377 wrote

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. The military budget is close to $1Trillion. Annually. You have no clue what you are talking about

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epicchocoballer t1_jd9a9p2 wrote

You would be well served to take a gander at this, maybe you will learn something new

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/

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BluCurry8 t1_jd9t4p0 wrote

Sorry bud. You are lumping in Social Security and Medicare. Both are paid for with separate payroll taxes. It is the military budget against all other administrative funding. You are just spinning it to make a confidently incorrect assertion!!

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pocketbookashtray t1_jdawlu4 wrote

But then who would write the policies on micro-aggressions, safe spaces, and penalties for not using preferred pronouns?

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butterfly105 t1_jd9d3kp wrote

And get rid of worthless degrees. Why do we need a degree in philosophy again? Come on it’s common sense. Communications? Unless there is a specific career path tied to a degree, I’m sorry, but these colleges have to cut the fat.

Keep the downvotes coming! Cmon people we can study philosophy and communication, but we do not need separate departments for both. I can’t believe this is even a serious discussion. I absolutely agree with cutting bloated administrative costs, but there has to be a better way to educate students, other than basically useless departments and majors.

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hexopuss t1_jd9ggze wrote

Philosophy degrees are extremely useful for going to law school. I’ve heard some lawyers argue it’s better than pre-law at preparing a student for law school.

Communications is useful for marketing, corporate work, and similar applications

Just because it doesn’t have the job title in the name, doesn’t mean it isn’t a desirable education that employers value.

I’m not even getting defensive from the perspective of someone with a degree in one of these fields (I have a science degree). They aren’t useless at all unless you don’t know what you’re looking at. That’s the thing about “common sense”, it can be any bullshit that anyone believes; common sense is just a lovely buzzword to make people look stupid for even trying to challenge it.

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ILikeMyGrassBlue t1_jdawko4 wrote

Philosophy majors also make more than non-college graduates on average. If I remember correctly, it was even more than welders, which is a classic suggestion for “go to trade school instead.” Not shitting on trades here; college isn’t for everyone. But I love that philosophy is always the degree people shit on lol.

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Semi-Hemi-Demigod t1_jdani72 wrote

I got a lot of value out of my college philosophy class. Learning how to think about thinking and how you fit in the world is good mental training.

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GraySparrow t1_jd9f2ah wrote

I've been told this a few times since I moved to the USA. I have an undergraduate degree in philosophy, so I'm obviously biased on this, but critical thinking, as the major component of philosophical exploration, and all the associated skills are absolutely essential. Critical thinking and common sense are not always the same thing, as evidenced by *gestures broadly*.

These types of soft skills might not always translate into direct $$$ but they are incredibly socially valuable. I've since obtained a Master's degree and am working on a PhD in the mental health field, which again, definitely not tied to financial worth and my experience isn't necessarily generalizable, but worth can be thought of as a lot more than financially valuable career paths when we think more broadly about societal needs.

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PPQue6 t1_jd9oy8v wrote

> I have an undergraduate degree in philosophy

😬😬 I'm just wrapping up my intro to philosophy class and that alone gives me a bad enough headache. I can't even imagine how much of a pain it is to major in it. On that note I'll just side with Socrates in that I know nothing, and that I can never truly know anything, but I can always discuss it in a dialectic manner.

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GraySparrow t1_jd9qfp1 wrote

I actually went to university for English Language and Creative Writing, but took an intro course in Philosophy and loved it so much I switched. We all have our different but valuable skills, good luck with finishing your course!

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ThankMrBernke t1_jd9slsw wrote

I wouldn't necessarily recommend an English, Philosophy, Communications, etc degree to anybody, but they're generally fairly cheap programs to run. They don't require expensive lab space or professors with high salary requirements because you've got to hire then away from the private sector. They're generally profit centers for the university that end up subsidizing the math-ier subjects.

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ILikeMyGrassBlue t1_jdawtnl wrote

They also still make more than non-college graduates on average. An English or comm degree may not be for a specific job like a biologist or engineer or teacher, but it still opens a lot of doors. It’s just not guaranteed for a specific position like a rocket scientist or something is.

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DavidLieberMintz t1_jd9pvs2 wrote

Yeah, who needs music and arts! Colleges should be churning out buyers and sellers, BUYERS AND SELLERS! Capitalism to the max has never hurt us before.

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ILikeMyGrassBlue t1_jdawxz5 wrote

Woah, slow down there. You need to buy gear to make art and music. Music gear in particular gets incredibly expensive. There’s profit there.

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