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Report: Many U.S. universities are fat with administrators
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
The nation's universities have become bloated with administrators, and UNLV is rapidly catching up to them, according to a new report by a conservative think tank.
The state's higher education leaders don't see it that way.
The report, from the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, actually shows UNLV to be among the leanest universities in the country, UNLV President Neal Smatresk said.
Indeed, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is ranked 19th out of 198 universities when it comes to the number of administrators per 100 students, the report says. UNLV went from having two administrators per 100 students in 1993 to 3.8 per 100 students in 2007. The national average was 6.8 in 1993 and 9.4 in 2007.
"We are at less than half the national average," Smatresk said.
The report has been touted by the conservative Nevada Policy Research Institute as an example of bloat in the state's universities.
The report used data reported to the federal government that measured employment, tuition, spending and other factors at the nation's universities from 1993 through 2007.
Patrick Gibbons, an education consultant and former education analyst with NPRI, said what is stunning is the report shows the number of administrators per 100 students at UNLV grew by 90 percent during those years.
He said it was true that UNLV had less administrative bloat than other universities, but that it was catching up rapidly.
"The fact is that 20 years ago, they had fewer administrators and got along just fine," he said.
Smatresk countered that UNLV is a different institution than it was in 1993, far larger and more research intensive.
He said the measuring period in the study "happens to be a 14-year span where the university experienced meteoric growth, moving from a small institution to a major research institution."
UNLV's enrollment went from 19,000 in 1993 to 28,000 in 2007.
Smatresk also said it is misleading to measure percentage changes. When the institution starts out small, a small increase in the overall number of administrators can look large when measured on a percentage basis.
Smatresk and state System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich also said there are several problems with the data in the report.
First, the definition of administrators is iffy at best, they said. It includes people such as reference librarians and academic counselors. Isn't it a good thing, they said, that UNLV has grown enough to offer more of these services to students?
Gibbons said it might not be. Graduation rates are still below 50 percent at the university, showing very little improvement over the years the study covers.
"If they're a different university, they're going in the wrong direction," he said.
Klaich and Smatresk also pointed out that the data only goes up to 2007, before the higher education system's budget began getting cut.
Smatresk has said the university spends about 25 percent of its budget on nonacademic areas -- administration is part of that -- but focused more than half the budget cuts in those areas to shield the classrooms from the cuts as much as possible. The result, he said, is that UNLV has even fewer administrative positions now per 100 students than it did three years ago when it was 19th leanest in the country.
"We're probably 10th by now," he said.
Gibbons acknowledged that the university has had to undergo cuts.
"I believe they are working in good faith to adjust to the reality they've been presented," he said.
Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.
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UNLV is fat with work visa teachers --
especially in their computer department. They will not say anything about the financial abuses the school is making in other areas and that is why UNLV continues to do bring them here while not employing Americans !!!
Administrators' increased numbers corresponding to decrease in student retention and graduation tells the main story. Cut administrators to pre-2005 numbers, we'll cut massive waste. Smatresk does not mention that the first 10.6 million he chose to cut was in programs, not administrators. Wonder why. Everybody knows Grant writing is a black hole for book-cooking, from the writing to the award and disbursement process. That should be outsourced to out-of-state agencies, without vested ties to unlv Administrators' special interests. Grant disbursement should be overseen here by Govt. appointed teams solely functioning to track and confirm that proper expenditures result. Finally, the Goldwater Institute is independent, and can be trusted well ahead of our Chancellor and President for their analyses.
CCSD is just as horrible. That's why education funds should be cut LONG before any taxes are increased. Get rid of the pork FIRST!!!!
Subcontract the admin jobs..
Irma - thanks for the perfect example of what you get with uneducated people - short sighted, narrow minded, paranoid comments like yours. With all the words of Shakespeare I couldn't have said it better. Now, go back to your trailer, I think Springer is coming on.
Cut, cut , cut. Make it all mostly internet based. Fewer classrooms and robot instructors. The whole Uni systems exists to give academics a feeling of importance....."I'm a PROFESSOR !" woo-hoo, such cachet.
Teach only career demand fields.
Eliminate all the crap, let Cali and the private colleges teach that.
What? A government, liberal, institution that is bloated with employees? Who wudda thunk it?
Let's compare that with private companies that have to compete in the market. Do you think ANY of them are bloated with administrators? No?
Tax and spend. Then spend more! Heck, it's taxpayer money. Why worry?
Its okay they're Obumma supporters.
Sounds like a worthless report. The statistics were obviously cooked for propaganda purposes. Librarians and academic counselors as administrators? Somebody really wanted to pad the numbers. I'm sure that another big factor is an increase in grant adminsitrators required to handle the large increase in research grants over the period. Grants take a lot of work to do the applications and the documentation and reporting. At the same time, they're bringing in a lot of money. Those new grant-related positions pay for themselves many times over. And isn't it interesting that this bogus study chose 2007 as it's end date. Everybody knows that the best way to cook your figures is to choose the beginning and end dates that best serve your purpose. This propaganda mill deliberately chose an end date right before the economy crashed, and thus right before positions started being slashed. All in all, the people who put out this study are fundamentally dishonest in their use of carefully manipulated figures and in their lack of proper analysis.
A "Conservative Institute"...otherwise known as a propaganda mill. Just another day of reporting junk as news for the RJ.