On Administration

A disinterested observer might conclude that the central occupation of our university administration has become to thwart, defy, marginalize and humiliate the faculty. Several administrators I overhear, and among them the highest. can barely manage to open their mouths without expressing contempt for the faculty. Every faculty conversation concerning the university carries as a subtext resentment of the administration, and wonder that it can be so wrong so consistently and yet continue down the same path, our good counsel set aside as a kind of weakness. How did it come to this? Faculty let it, is the answer, largely through politeness and collegiality, compromising where no compromise was reciprocated, believing without investigation tales of necessity, allowing people who smiled and promised to become martinets before our eyes. Not all in the administration lean toward the dark side, but if they lean in other ways it seems not to make much difference. The central folly is that those who want to seize the reins are exactly those who have nothing to do legitimately but carry the baggage. The simple fact is that what is necessary to a university are students and faculty. That is the end of it. Groundskeepers and cooks and the like are desirable if there is to be more than a few scholars huddled in a room, as it was in the beginning of universities, but all the rest are add-ons which can be as easily take-aways. Administration in Paradise raises money, pays bills, manages the payroll, and has nothing to say about the actual process of academia. An employee should not be fired, a parking space removed, a policy changed without express faculty approval. Administration is a convenience to and a luxury for faculty and student. When it ceases to be convenient it is merely a luxury, and in these times luxuries, especially obstreperous ones, cannot be afforded. The fount of offense is far away, I grant, Chapel Hill or Raleigh, but one takes aim at the target one can see. Most of the projects the administration–near and far–hands down to us have the deliberate end of making it seem like their oversight and input is actually necessary, and have nothing to do with the actual delivery of curriculum. I wish I too could get paid for inventing and imposing projects which exist solely to justify my salary. Not all those in the lofty offices are dead weight, of course, but too, too many are, especially in this time of dearth. The “top” has become a parasite, sapping the vitality of the whole. I have too many projects on my hands to do anything about this, even if I could think of what to do. I believe we could defeat the beast merely by ignoring it, but it is hard to recruit participants to that action. Too much fear. I feel the fear, but I fear the destruction of the university system (or the transforming of it into a corporate system, which is the same thing) more than I fear the wrath of anyone on it.