For Democratic Governance of Universities
Yesterday I stumbled across a paper by Blanca Missé and James Martel of San Francisco State University with the title For Democratic Governance of Universities: The Case for Administrative Abolition.
The abstract is:
In this essay, we argue for administrative abolition, that is, the elimination of all college presidents, provosts, deans and other top level administrators who we argue form a parasitical group that was developed over time in order to exercise both political and financial control over faculty, staff and students. We examine the way that the idea of “shared governance” disguises the de facto dictatorship of administration over faculty self-governance, explore the history of how this power grab took place and furthermore explore alternative forms of faculty self-management in both US history and abroad (especially in Latin America).
Theory & Event, vol. 27 no. 1, 2024, p. 5-29. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2024.a917791.
You can find the whole paper here. I encourage everyone working in a university to read it.
I’m sure this article will ring true to many academics, besides myself, who dream of a time when universities direct their resources to teaching and research rather than squandering it on the bloated apparatus of management that hinders the very activities it should be supporting.
In the Dark 
January 30, 2024 at 12:22 pm
I think the way we got to here is simply that in the beginning professors hired administrators to do the parts of their job that anybody of reasonable intelligence and education could do, to reserve more of their own time for reearch which only they could do; but professors have incentive to reduce admin whereas administrators have incentive to increase it, and so little by little we got to a position where administrators tell professors what to do, instead of vice-versa as it should be. I don’t think that radical politics has as much to do with it as the authors believe, but I agree with their conclusions of what to do about it. This has been obvious for a long time to those of us who continue to research outside the university system.
January 31, 2024 at 12:12 pm
I certainly agree, and I haven’t been in research for 25+ years now.
Similarly in Industry I don’t believe in the domination of management that exists in USA and UK, the so called Anglo-Saxon world.
Would much prefer that the Engineer, person actually doing the real real work, is the most respected employee, which is more the case in Germany and Europe. This is a even more radical change that is very unlikely to ever happen. (Just look at the complaints about working from home (WFH) in telegraph newspaper from management types).
It was a very unfortunate mistake allowing the administrations into the equation in research, as described in previous post.
January 31, 2024 at 1:37 pm
An insightful book about the business schools in the Anglosphere whose graduates led the cult of management is “The Puritan Gift” by the Hopper brothers (though you’d never guess its subject from its title). A superb read that sheds light on many unexpected areas.
January 31, 2024 at 4:01 pm
As I see it, the functions of the non-academic staff in universities are (a) mow the grass, paint the buildings, run the salary and accounts systems etc; and (b) raise money for infrastructure and activities not funded by research grants. Academics don’t generally want to do either of these sets of activities… Where things have gone wrong is that Category (b) is probably insufficiently steered by academics, so many (UK at least) universities have turned into businesses that do some teaching and some research. It is necessary to have a process for committing the institution to things like the 20% FTE funding (again, UK specific), or where the university actually signs a contract to deliver something (a satellite instrument or a teaching course, for example), a process for agreeing that the risk is acceptable. The balance of power is probably wrong, but once you get beyond the arts into expensive science, some adminstration becomes necessary – the question is how to direct the strategy of those doing the day-to-day administration.
January 31, 2024 at 4:29 pm
Non-academic staff in universities try do much more than (a) (much of it unnecessary) and don’t help with much at all with (b) thereby being net consumers of resource.