Ignoring a gut feeling
A recent Goldwater Institute policy report, "Administrative Bloat at American Universities: The Real Reason for High Costs in Higher Education,” noted the dramatic increase in the number of administrators -- i.e., people not directly engaged in teaching -- employed at Arizona State University.
Between 1993 and 2007, the number of administrators per 100 students increased 94 percent, while the employment of teachers and researchers actually declined. Thus, ASU had one of the highest rates of "administrative bloat" in the nation.
Much of the funding for this administrative bloat came from state subsidies, but in-state tuition more than doubled during this period.
Students and Arizona taxpayers expect their money to be spent actually teaching students, not on administrators who teach nothing or on grandiose building schemes.
ASU's academic reputation did not significantly improve from 1993 to 2007 and will never improve so long as the University focuses on administrators and new buildings instead of teaching and research.
James Perry Reader, 1988 alum
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