It's popular here to blame the growth of administrative and non-teaching staff on a self-serving bureacracy, but I don't think that's the case, it is due to circumstances.
The size of IT infrastructure has grown immensely compared to 30 years back, so you need people to take care of that. My department has four IT support people, and they carry a full workload.
The amount of foreign students has grown, consequently you need people to keep track of immigration requirements that seem to get worse each passing year, and you also need cultural programs, you can't expect people from non-western countries to be thrown into an alien culture and succeed.
The number of non-traditional and first-generation college students has grown, if the student body consists only of middle-class and wealthy people you don't need support staff for the students who teach them how to study.
Then there is career services, these things are expected these days. Back when you knew the major employers, and they had a hiring pipeline at your university.
There is also this competition through facilities, gyms and really fancy dorms are the norm, and those things need looking after.
Anyone who proposes cutting back on administrative staff must give suggestions how to deal with all these issues.
Everyone pays for these services, but not everyone uses them. For example, I had to pay a ridiculous $600 per year for the recreation center fee in college. I never once stepped in that place, and they wouldn't let me not pay it. I also never used my college's career center, and I have a job.
The services you listed are great; I'm not saying gyms and career centers are bad at all. The problem is that everyone in the school is forced to pay for them. The bloat comes because they get more funding than they need.
Everyone pays for these services, but not everyone uses them.
Here's the deal: it's not about you, it's the university that runs the numbers and decides where the scarce funds will go. (Yes, the funds are scarce. The machinist in my old department will retire soon, and the fear is that there won't be a replacement. When he leaves it will be a disaster, there won't be custom-built instrumentation any longer.)
If the rec. center attracts more tuition than it costs to provide there will be a rec. center. If the center for remedial math will prevent an unprepared student from dropping out - if three years more in tuition provides more money than running the courses then there will be remedial math. That's how non-teaching staff are allocated.
> The amount of foreign students has grown, consequently you need people to keep track of immigration requirements that seem to get worse each passing year, and you also need cultural programs, you can't expect people from non-western countries to be thrown into an alien culture and succeed.
Um, most of the reason foreign student enrollment has grown is because foreign students pay cash. Adding bureaucracy to manage students who whom you admitted primarily because they carry cash is not something I particularly sympathize with.
Not to mention colleges usually charge foreign students DOUBLE, even when they are from third world countries.... So if foreign students extra cost, it must already get covered by what they pay extra
Exactly. If people saw the cost to provide these services as a % of their tuition, I am guessing most students would prefer to simply do without and pay less.
The size of IT infrastructure has grown immensely compared to 30 years back, so you need people to take care of that. My department has four IT support people, and they carry a full workload.
The amount of foreign students has grown, consequently you need people to keep track of immigration requirements that seem to get worse each passing year, and you also need cultural programs, you can't expect people from non-western countries to be thrown into an alien culture and succeed.
The number of non-traditional and first-generation college students has grown, if the student body consists only of middle-class and wealthy people you don't need support staff for the students who teach them how to study.
Then there is career services, these things are expected these days. Back when you knew the major employers, and they had a hiring pipeline at your university.
There is also this competition through facilities, gyms and really fancy dorms are the norm, and those things need looking after.
Anyone who proposes cutting back on administrative staff must give suggestions how to deal with all these issues.