Report bashes University of Minnesota for 'huge administrative bloat,' Kaler calls it "dead wrong"

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal ^ | 5-19-14 | Mark Reilly

[TurboZamboni]

The University of Minnesota, which was criticized last year by a Wall Street Journal report for its administrative spending, is now slammed by a left-leaning think tank for the same thing.

The Star Tribune has the story on U of M president's Eric Kaler's reaction to a report by the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, which put the school among the worst offenders of what it called "administrative bloat" at the expense of things like financial aid.

His reaction: The report is "dead wrong." Kaler said that the U of M has increased financial aid "substantially."

Read the University of Minnesota's six-page rebuttal here (PDF).

The New York Times also has a piece on the report, which argued that student debt is increasing faster at schools with higher-paid administrators.

[TurboZamboni]

The lion's share of university resources comes from the federal and state governments, as well as private gifts and fees for non-educational services. The large and increasing rate of government subsidy for higher education facilitates administrative bloat by insulating students from the costs. Reducing government subsidies would do much to make universities more efficient.

For public universities the administrative bloat is much worse than at private colleges - administrative positions grew by 39% between 1993 and 2007, almost four times the 9.8% increase for instructional positions. At private universities, without access to the public largess, administrative and instructional positions increased at about the same rate.

[jjotto]

hehe

The defense for absurd spending on administrative bloat is that they also have increased absurd spending on ‘financial aid’ bloat.

[G Larry]

There’s not a public school or University in the nation that wouldn’t work BETTER with only half the admin staff.

[AppyPappy]

Oddly, no. People who use the University are very high maintenance. Plus staff are at the whim of politicians who change rules as often as they change their underwear.

Add in that you have faculty/staff who are working for the pension. I took a 25% pay cut to come work for a university. You trade the corporate grind in the city for a better quality of life/education. After 16 years, I am finally making what I made when I left the corporate world.

[DManA]

Obviously yes. And the university drones are so stupid they think they are making a sacrifice by taking these cushy jobs.