Where Universities Can Be Cut
[F]aculty members, staff, and students called for cuts that resembled recommendations found in the consultants’ reports. These groups are asking budget administrators to “protect the academic core” by slicing from what they view as unnecessarily large administration instead of instruction, research, and student and academic services. And many university administrators claim they are doing just that. What the consultant reports show, and what other universities learned through their own efforts, is that major budget savings could be obtained through cuts in administrative services. Many universities are now trying to execute these plans, merging and sharing services across divisions, eliminating supervisory positions, and using new software to lower the cost of purchasing. But data such as a new report released this week from the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity, and Accountability, show that administrative cutting can only go so far…
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by Kevin Kiley, Inside Higher Ed.