Friday, January 10, 2014

Thoughts on the Outlaw Campus

Victor Davis Hanson has a thoughtful take on university life in his essay, The Outlaw Campus. He notes ten areas that need to be reformed. Some of his suggestions are intriguing. He suggests that administration should be outsourced the way that teaching is to adjunct faculty. He suggests employing adjunct administrators:
Why should those who dreamed up exploitative part-time teaching positions be exempt from their own logic? Private enterprise could supply all sorts of part-time administrative clerks to the university at a fraction of the present in-house costs.
Why indeed?

There are a number of wonderful administrators, but there are also cases where the exploits of the administrators are far worse than those of the faculty. At least poorly performing adjunct administrators would be easier to rid oneself of.

Hanson's ideas deserve careful consideration. I suggest reading the whole article.