[Muanet] Anyone know where this came from?

[Dion Giles]

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Apropos of Herb Thomson's warning about the co-option of universities and 
about process for selection of a Vice Chancellor, I wonder if anyone can 
help me with this query:

Two or three years ago I read a newspaper article about universities which 
included a statement that a couple of decades ago, at the University of 
Sydney, 23c was spent on administration for every $1 spent on teaching and 
research, and the 23c had since blown out to 92c.

The implication of this is that 23c was necessary for administration 
(without which the university couldn't function) and that the extra 69c 
(36% of the resulting total) is wasted on management.

Whereas administration is a facilitating activity, the only functions of 
management are

1. Telling people what to do -- people who have shown they could manage on 
the original $1.23 without need for the extra 69c worth of instructions
2. Bending universities to the aims and perspectives of corporate business 
and government bureaucracies
3. Lowering the effectiveness of the productive $1.23's worth by imposing 
recently-invented accountability burdens whose function is to facilitate 
and strengthen chains of command
4. Building an empire

It suggests that if all universities have suffered a similar deterioration 
to the University of Sydney -- and there is no reason to suppose otherwise 
-- funding for the useful functions of universities could immediately be 
increased by 36% without asking for a brass cent from government or 
corporate sponsors/meddlers. All that would be needed is to remove the 
superstructure which has in the past been found not to be necessary.

It also suggests that it is conceivable that similar immediate increases in 
effective funding of public services in other areas of health and education 
(and maybe defence -- starting with Admiral Barrie) could be achieved by 
cutting out this burden, and that demands on taxpayers to pour more and 
more money into health and education are premature in the absence of such 
beneficial reform.

But there is a major snag. I can't for the life of me recall where and when 
I read about the 92c, except that I _think_ it may have been in The 
Australian.  Has anyone else seen it and maybe noted where and when?

Dion Giles



At 10:42 08/04/02 +0800, Herb wrote:

>Hi
>38 years ago, I was one of the many faces in the crowd when a young 
>university undergraduate at the University of Berkeley named Mario Savio 
>denounced the American university system for serving as a group of 
>factories that turn out certain products needed by industry, while 
>forgetting their role to act as conscience and critic of society. I think 
>his words ring truer today than they ever did, even in that time of social 
>sickness.
>
>We debate the content of corporate logos or how many signs we should place 
>on the lawn. We hire people based on the amount of money they can 
>accumulate rather than the quality of their publications. We use 
>microphones to talk to hundreds of students filling up the large lecture 
>halls without ever learning their individual names because we no longer 
>have time. Management coopts academics into a game of "pretend 
>participation" determining strategic plans and visionary statements which 
>will all go on the shelf in the back rooms of the Chancellory when complete.
>
>In the meantime the important decisions continue to be made in secret. 
>Academics are invited to meetings only on the basis of signing affidavits 
>of secrecy not to tell anyone else what goes on in the meeting.
>
>What is going on in fact, is the selection of yet more management people 
>who have been head-hunted by other management people to run the place. 
>Another VC is being selected in much the same fashion as the last one - in 
>secret, without staff input and with union presence allowed only at the 
>whim of the Chancellor as long as nobody tells anybody else anything.
>
>"As things fell apart, nobody paid much attention". The Talking Heads
>
>Herb
>
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