"Students possess a volatile mix of knowledge and ignorance. Quite often they are the ones who can tell when a particular intellectual emperor is wearing no clothes. At the same time, they have zero idea of how large organizations are run."
Ay ay ay. I've seen this phenomenon play out in entities ranging from small non-profits to arts organizations to school districts - try running an inner-city school district! - to cities themselves. You have recently noted that students can't be expected to avoid being idiotic, at least sometimes. It gets more annoying/infuriating when actual adults ridicule people who are frequently performing much better than the self-appointed critics have any notion of. Like you, I would be a pretty bad manager. Thank god there are still people willing to try.
“College presidents and school deans have two jobs: 1) raise money; and 2) find ways to appease students, faculty, administrators, alumni, donors, and the state.⁹ The one trait all these interest groups share is a powerful sense of entitlement in telling university presidents and college deans exactly how to do their jobs.”
Eerily similar to the museum world -- just different interest groups.
What about the upper administrators themselves? What have you learned about what they are all about? Doesn't it seem like they don't actually care about the intellectual mission of the university? And just want to build new buildings?
Some of the dynamics described here can be applied to nearly every situation in life. When I used to manage a restaurant, customers *loved* to tell me how the place should have been run. Now, don't get me wrong, I never took issue with when a customer told me we did a bad job...that happens, and that's their experience, but I can think of multiple times when customers went above and beyond to explain exactly how we should be doing things differently.
“What worries me about the fallout from Magill’s resignation is that, the longer it continues, the number of folks willing and able to do these jobs will shrink into nothingness.“
Similar to what will happen in the future in this country in civil service jobs or when running for political office. Already in countries like India and Russia, the pool of qualified people putting themselves out there for certain leadership and administrative positions is shrinking to non-existent. Only the craziest or the bravest, or both, even grow up with such career or service interests and opportunities.
As youngsters in the U.S. end up seeing more and more dysfunction caused by the likes of DT and MTG and GS, the ones we would eventually like to see in the applicant pool or on ballots will try to find alternate ways to contribute to society while also having to earn a decent living. The middle class in some countries already lead parallel lives, never getting on the road to leadership at the state level. I worry this will be the future in the US too.
30 odd years ago, as I was finishing my Physics undergrad, my advisor professor was urging me to consider academia. I was tired of college and since I graduated in the post Reagan recession, I struggled with that decision. I could get a stipend, and pursue a PhD. Or I could go do catering until I could find a career starting point.
I chose the latter, and all these years later Professor Drezner here confirms that I made the right choice for myself.
I blame human nature and our terrible blindspot of wanting to be led by the best-looking/person with the best hair/tallest/most charming/ad nauseum. I wonder if and/or fear that this is how other civilizations have died out - "He promised us that the daily sacrifices would end the drought!", rather than "She challenged me to find a solution to the problem on my own, and that actually worked really well..." (begrudging shrug).
One additional party here that is always at the back of an administrator's mind is the media. Reporting on higher education, outside of a few competent journalists at CHE et al., is generally mediocre and/or drive-by sensationalism. So long as it fits their preferred narrative, journalists will happily portray colleges as evil or indifferent even if the colleges are following the law or basic principles of academic freedom. You can see that not only in the recent Harvard/Penn brouhaha, but more generally with coverage of almost anything on campus--some student felt "unsafe" or "stressed," so the college must be in the wrong.
Hence, the focus for campus leaders is retaining a vast belt of deanlings and administrators who can be blamed and/or take the fall, especially for anything that might be relevant for a lawsuit.
What worries me is that there are two identical women with identical statements and political views who committed the same exact (verbatim) "speech crime" as far as the University\donors go and one didn't get fired because of her skin tone. DEI indeed.
Clark Kerr once said: “I find that the three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty.” Were it only still that simple.
Such a good article. Seems like the only job that’s worse than sales. This would require endless thick skin, careerism and (perhaps) unearned self belief, yet little interest in doing anything at all other than the necessary balancing act.
“ He conveniently omitted the other stakeholders that college presidents and deans must appease: the alumni, the donors, and the state.”
You forgot: Football teams and their alumni fans. The highest-paid state employees in most states? University football coaches.
As a retired university professor u have no idea how right u are. Good essay.
"Students possess a volatile mix of knowledge and ignorance. Quite often they are the ones who can tell when a particular intellectual emperor is wearing no clothes. At the same time, they have zero idea of how large organizations are run."
Ay ay ay. I've seen this phenomenon play out in entities ranging from small non-profits to arts organizations to school districts - try running an inner-city school district! - to cities themselves. You have recently noted that students can't be expected to avoid being idiotic, at least sometimes. It gets more annoying/infuriating when actual adults ridicule people who are frequently performing much better than the self-appointed critics have any notion of. Like you, I would be a pretty bad manager. Thank god there are still people willing to try.
Great essay.
“College presidents and school deans have two jobs: 1) raise money; and 2) find ways to appease students, faculty, administrators, alumni, donors, and the state.⁹ The one trait all these interest groups share is a powerful sense of entitlement in telling university presidents and college deans exactly how to do their jobs.”
Eerily similar to the museum world -- just different interest groups.
What about the upper administrators themselves? What have you learned about what they are all about? Doesn't it seem like they don't actually care about the intellectual mission of the university? And just want to build new buildings?
As a college sophomore many years ago, I once attended an all-college faculty meeting. Prof. Drezner nailed it.
Some of the dynamics described here can be applied to nearly every situation in life. When I used to manage a restaurant, customers *loved* to tell me how the place should have been run. Now, don't get me wrong, I never took issue with when a customer told me we did a bad job...that happens, and that's their experience, but I can think of multiple times when customers went above and beyond to explain exactly how we should be doing things differently.
I really enjoyed this. Thank you.
“What worries me about the fallout from Magill’s resignation is that, the longer it continues, the number of folks willing and able to do these jobs will shrink into nothingness.“
Similar to what will happen in the future in this country in civil service jobs or when running for political office. Already in countries like India and Russia, the pool of qualified people putting themselves out there for certain leadership and administrative positions is shrinking to non-existent. Only the craziest or the bravest, or both, even grow up with such career or service interests and opportunities.
As youngsters in the U.S. end up seeing more and more dysfunction caused by the likes of DT and MTG and GS, the ones we would eventually like to see in the applicant pool or on ballots will try to find alternate ways to contribute to society while also having to earn a decent living. The middle class in some countries already lead parallel lives, never getting on the road to leadership at the state level. I worry this will be the future in the US too.
30 odd years ago, as I was finishing my Physics undergrad, my advisor professor was urging me to consider academia. I was tired of college and since I graduated in the post Reagan recession, I struggled with that decision. I could get a stipend, and pursue a PhD. Or I could go do catering until I could find a career starting point.
I chose the latter, and all these years later Professor Drezner here confirms that I made the right choice for myself.
I blame human nature and our terrible blindspot of wanting to be led by the best-looking/person with the best hair/tallest/most charming/ad nauseum. I wonder if and/or fear that this is how other civilizations have died out - "He promised us that the daily sacrifices would end the drought!", rather than "She challenged me to find a solution to the problem on my own, and that actually worked really well..." (begrudging shrug).
One additional party here that is always at the back of an administrator's mind is the media. Reporting on higher education, outside of a few competent journalists at CHE et al., is generally mediocre and/or drive-by sensationalism. So long as it fits their preferred narrative, journalists will happily portray colleges as evil or indifferent even if the colleges are following the law or basic principles of academic freedom. You can see that not only in the recent Harvard/Penn brouhaha, but more generally with coverage of almost anything on campus--some student felt "unsafe" or "stressed," so the college must be in the wrong.
Hence, the focus for campus leaders is retaining a vast belt of deanlings and administrators who can be blamed and/or take the fall, especially for anything that might be relevant for a lawsuit.
What worries me is that there are two identical women with identical statements and political views who committed the same exact (verbatim) "speech crime" as far as the University\donors go and one didn't get fired because of her skin tone. DEI indeed.
Clark Kerr once said: “I find that the three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni and parking for the faculty.” Were it only still that simple.
Such a good article. Seems like the only job that’s worse than sales. This would require endless thick skin, careerism and (perhaps) unearned self belief, yet little interest in doing anything at all other than the necessary balancing act.