U too top-heavy

BY ED FELIEN

The Wall Street Journal slammed the University of Minnesota administration for its bloated bureaucracy in a front page article in its Dec. 28 issue.

In the last 10 years the U has hired 1,000 new administrators according to the WSJ. That’s twice the number of teachers hired and almost twice as fast a growth rate as the student body. There were 39 administrators making more than $200,000 in 2001. Today there are 81.

The Pioneer Press reported that U President Eric Kaler told a press briefing that the U had only added about 650 administrators over the past decade. The U and the WSJ disagree about what makes up an administrator, but they both agree the 1,000 figure did not include teachers.

During the same period student tuition has risen from $5,002 in 2001 to $11,650 in 2011. Beginning salaries for professors are still very low by comparison to most universities and colleges and start at $38,682 for a 12-month appointment.
Legislators were shocked at the bad publicity. KARE 11 reported that Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk said, "That is not the place—the front page of the Wall Street Journal—where we want our flagship university."

As a result of all the bad publicity the U has decided to study the problem and get back to the state legislature by the middle of March. They’re not sure if the study will cost more than $50,000. Their solution sounds a little like Wayne LaPierre’s response to the Newtown tragedy, “The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”: The only thing that will stop out of control bureaucracy is good bureaucracy with a study.