Bloat Much?

The above graph plots the number of senior administrators and the number of faculty members in the UC from 1997 to the present.  From 1993 (not shown on the graph) until now the ratio of faculty members to senior managers had dropped from 2.5:1 to nearly 1:1.  Over that same period of time student fees have increased by nearly 300%.  Those data are from the UCOP, compiled in this article on the Keep California's Promise website.  More detailed studies are available on Charles Schwartz's website: Financing the University 12, 13, and 14.  There was an interesting comment posted in response to the KCP article:

I’m sure that either new hires or reclassification is justified (using the word loosely) on growth of units. Cyril Northcote Parkinson, in his 1955 Economist article entitled Parkinson’s Law, stated two axioms:
1. An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals.
2. Officials make work for each other.
Parkinson also said “[I]n any public administrative department not actually at war a staff increase may be expected to follow the formula x = (2k^m + p)/n, and that this would invariably yield an annual growth rate between 5.17% and 6.56%.” That fits pretty well with UC management growth, and is in accordance with those two axioms.

I think the UCOP has some explaining to do.  Luckily, the UC Commission on the Future is coming to Berkeley on Thursday and soliciting comments from the public.  If no one else brings it up, I will.  The commission website asks for public input so I sent them the following:

As the working group on the size and shape of the UC system considers what UC will look like in the future, I would like them to pay special attention to the explosion of senior management positions in the past 20 years.  In the same time period that the educational fees have gone up by 300% the faculty to senior administrator ratio has decreased from 2.5 to 1 to nearly 1 to 1.  This is well documented, see most recently: http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/?p=469

It is impossible to believe that UC needs one senior administrator per faculty member, especially considering the fact that the average senior administrator pay is higher than that of the average faculty member.  The Commission must account for all of these administrators and justify their necessity to the well being of the university if they are to have a place in the future of UC.