The College Fix

The Detroit Free Press ran a terrific story today about administrative spending at Michigan universities. Though the rest of the country may have finally caught up, the Michigan economy has been in a sorry state for a decade now, and residents have grown accustomed to getting by on less. Public administrators in the university system, however, are paid more highly than ever:

Michigan universities increased their spending on administrative positions by nearly 30% on average in the last five years, even as university leaders say they’ve slashed expenses to keep college affordable for families.

The number of administrative jobs grew 19% over that period at the state’s public universities, according to data submitted by the schools to the state budget office.

Meanwhile, faculty compensation went up 22%.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a similar investigative story that looked at administrative compensation at Arizona’s public universities. What people should realize is that the biggest salary increases don’t go to struggling, under-paid English professors. They go to administrators and bureaucrats in primarily non-teaching roles who already make a lot of money:

When Kimberly de los Santos took on additional duties in her role as associate vice president of Arizona State University’s Office of University Initiatives, the promotion came with a hefty increase in pay. Her salary jumped from $130,000 in 2008 to $195,000 in 2009. …

Though she did not return repeated phone calls and e-mails asking for clarification of her role and salary, an ASU spokesperson explained that her raise was given because of an expanded role in overseeing university initiatives, as well as to retain her services. According to the office’s website, these initiatives include fostering “entrepreneurship, social embeddedness, university innovation and education at ASU.”

That’s a $65,000 raise for someone whose job is essentially to put out press releases filled with buzzwords like “innovation” and “entrepreneurship.”

Public universities are living in a fairy tale. Each year, employee salaries go up, more administrators are hired, and the university presidents lobby their state legislatures for more money as the private sector of the economy slips further into recession.

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