Bloated University Administrations

RALEIGH NEWS AND OBSERVER -- This decade has been good for associate vice chancellors at UNC-Chapel Hill. Their numbers have nearly doubled, from 10 to 19, and the money paid to them has more than tripled, to a total of nearly $4 million a year. The university now admits that some of these people were in jobs that were not vital. They represent the rapid management growth in the 16-campus UNC system that has added tens of millions of dollars to annual payrolls.

Now, with a tough economy and sinking tax revenues, UNC officials and state lawmakers say these jobs need cutting first.

Systemwide over the past five years, the administrative ranks have grown by 28%, from 1,269 administrative jobs to 1,623 last year, UNC-system data show. That's faster than the growth of faculty and other teaching positions -- 24% -- and faster than student enrollment at 14%. The number of people with provost or chancellor in their titles alone has increased by 34% the past five years, from 312 in 2004 to 418 last year. The cost was $61.1 million, up $25 million from five years before.

MP: What is going on in the UNC-system represents a national trend of administrative "bureaucracy run amok." The chart below shows what has happened at the University of Michigan-Flint over the last 7 years: full-time professional administrative positions have grown by 67% during a period when student enrollment grew by only 13.5% and the full-time "core faculty" (mostly tenure-track faculty) decreased by 2.3%.