#administrativebloat — Public Fediverse posts

Almost every time someone in a position to solve a problem claims they'd love to solve it but they've tried everything and it didn't work, if you look closer you'll find one or more "sacred cow" solutions that have never been tried. The conversation then goes like this:

Q: To address __X__ have you tried __Y__?
A: That would never work! There's no reason to try it!

The person answering tends to get upset, which is why I put in the "!"

Examples:

X = University financial crises
Y = Reduce administration budgets

X = #Abortion frequency
Y = Healthcare, maternal care, childcare

X = Poverty
Y = Giving money to poor people

X = #IncomeInequality
Y = Wealth tax

X = #Corporate takeover of everything
Y = #Enforcement of #regulations

X = #gunviolence
Y = Gun control laws

X = US political #polarization
Y = RCV, no more electoral college, no more #filibuster...

X = Political polarization
Y = Campaign finance reform

X = Illegal immigration
Y = Enforcing minimum wage, punishing companies employing undocumented immigrants

X = Prostitution
Y = Prosecute the johns, UBI, free college

X = Palestinian #genocide
Y = Not giving/selling Israel any more weapons

etc.

(edit: added the bits about prostitution & undocumented immigrants)

#problem #solution #NotThat #campaignFinanceReform #CitizensUnited #AdministrativeBloat #HigherEd #ubi

US #universities are nearly all in the red, financially.

1. Yes, funding #publicEducation costs money

2. Research shows increasing #tuition costs are overwhelmingly because of (a) state reductions in per-student financing and (b) #AdministrativeBloat

Naturally, every upper administrator (and #university system) thinks the obvious fix is to cut #faculty, destroy #tenure, increase class sizes, remove majors, hire #adjuncts, and otherwise degrade academics--you know, the thing universities are about.

MY RADICAL SUGGESTIONS:

1. Fucking fund universities, you cowards

2. If you need to cut costs, start with the things that don't contribute to academics, like (a) administrative costs, (b) sports programs, (c) police and other non-academic programs using resources

3. Stop letting people in suits who know nothing about education and/or about business (and definitely about the ways universities and businesses are and are not similar) make the decisions

#highered #economics