Comments on: Procrustes’ Market https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2013/09/03/procrustes-market/ Culture, Politics, Academia and Other Shiny Objects Wed, 11 Sep 2013 17:33:54 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.15 By: Barry https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2013/09/03/procrustes-market/comment-page-1/#comment-72345 Wed, 11 Sep 2013 17:33:54 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=2428#comment-72345 Contingent, somebody pointed out that the ‘professionalization’ of university administration meant a huge shift from professors to management. When a large proportion of the ‘managers’ were regular professors, they both made the decisions and held the executive knowledge.

]]> By: Chris https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2013/09/03/procrustes-market/comment-page-1/#comment-72331 Fri, 06 Sep 2013 09:16:55 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=2428#comment-72331 More directly related to some of your earlier posts, but do you have any comment on your colleague, Barry Schwartz’s thoughts on the future of liberal arts education?

http://qz.com/121663/specialized-training-in-us-colleges-is-bad-business-strategy/

]]> By: Bryan Alexander https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2013/09/03/procrustes-market/comment-page-1/#comment-72326 Tue, 03 Sep 2013 23:42:10 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=2428#comment-72326 I’m glad to see you make the case for administrative staff. Those reasons for its/their growth rarely appear. And the faculty disdain is, well, sad.

]]> By: Contingent Cassandra https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2013/09/03/procrustes-market/comment-page-1/#comment-72325 Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:56:00 +0000 https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=2428#comment-72325 It has occurred to me that one way to chip away at several problems at once would be to require administrators to be (1)capable of teaching an introductory or core course in a traditional discipline (no “higher ed administration” for M.A. students, at least not as the only option) and (2) to do so regularly. Yes, that would mean that their duties would need to be scaled back in other areas, but it might be easier on everybody involved (except, perhaps, the adjuncts who would be replaced) than eliminating whole positions, and it would decrease the perspective gap between faculty and administrators a bit. It wouldn’t work for every administrative position, but, if hiring were done with this requirement in mind, it could work for quite a few. Tying administrative and faculty salaries to each other in some logical way (that takes into account 9- vs. 12-month distinctions, while also acknowledging that many supposedly 9-month faculty members do, in fact, have to work during the summer to keep up with research, service, and/or teaching) might also get things back in perspective. We definitely can’t fire all the administrators, but it’s also impossible to have a university without a sustainable faculty, and, at many institutions, we’re perilously close to the tipping point on that one.

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