I just learned from the Ohio Conference of the AAUP about Misleading testimony, with factual inaccuracies was given late Tuesday afternoon alleging inefficiencies and skyrocketing costs in higher education.

On Thursday, February 22nd, Inter-University Council President, Bruce Johnson testified in favor of SB 5.  The IUC represents the Presidents of Ohio’s public universities, and it could be understood by many as speaking on behalf of the state’s universities. University faculty would generally not agree that the cause of inefficiencies and rising costs in higher education are because of faculty unions or faculty salaries.  To the contrary, they are tied to rising administrative costs; indeed University administrators have proliferated AND they earn far more, sometimes by a factor of 2 or 3, than faculty.

Thus let me share the response from the Ohio Conference of the AAUP.

“Here’s the fiction as stated by Mr. Johnson, followed by the facts, which are overwhelming, and incontrovertible:

Fiction: Mr. Johnson asserted that “collective bargaining places very little value on efficiency and productivity”. He also said, “If people knew about all of the processes that go on relative to Ohio’s public sector collective-bargaining law, they would be offended by the time, energy and talent that is underutilized.”

Fact: The source of inefficiencies, and of rising costs in higher education, is administrative expenditures. You need not take our word for it. An independent think tank, the Delta Project on Post-Secondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability provides a report on “Trends in College Spending: Where Does the Money Go.”

“From 2002 to 2006, total spending on education and related services declined for all types of institutions except research universities. Additionally, the share of educational spending dedicated to classroom instruction declined at all types of institutions from 2002 to 2006. By contrast, spending on academic support, student services, administration, and maintenance increased as a share of total educational costs over the same period.”

Along these same lines, the report finds that spending on faculty is a minority of total spending in most institutions, and it is a proportion that has been declining in all sectors for the last two decades. (See their reports: http://www.deltacostproject.org/index.asp).

These findings support the research of scholars of all persuasions about costs in higher education in the past three decades.   On balance, an increasing share of higher education expenditures is being spent on non-educational, administrative expenditures, and a decreasing share is being spent on educational expenditures.

Fact: One of the services provided by the AAUP is to do financial audit analyses for faculty groups seeking valid information about the financial health of their institution, and report precisely how their institution is spending its resources.  A consistent finding of such reports on Ohio universities such as Akron, Toledo, and Wright State is that even in the tight times of recent years, the share of total expenditures going to administration increase whereas the share going to educational expenditures is decreasing.

Fact: No less a bona fide conservative organization than The Goldwater Institute, which describes itself as “an independent government watchdog supported by people who are committed to expanding free enterprise and liberty” issued a recent report entitled “Administrative Bloat at American Universities: The Real Reason for High Costs in Higher Education” (find the report at http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/4941). To quote from the Executive Summary,

…universities now have more administrative employees and spend more on administration to educate each student. In short, universities are suffering from “administrative bloat,” expanding the resources devoted to administration significantly faster than spending on instruction, research and service.” Indeed, the entire report does not mention unions or collective bargaining at all. Thus, it is administrative costs – not those associated with faculty or custodians or other workers who may be unionized – that explain shortfalls in “efficiency and productivity.”

Fact: Student numbers are up, and the goal is to dramatically increase numbers in Ohio public higher education institutions. The Ohio Board of Regents calls for substantial investment in facilities, by hundreds of millions MORE dollars than are being spent now.

No mention is made of the need to hire more faculty, advisors, and counselors, to teach and serve these students.

• Class sizes are up, and will go up further.
• Student faculty ratios are up, and will go up further.
• The system is already operating too “efficiently” on the educational side of the house, at the expense of effective, high quality education in which students have high levels of attainment.
• What is operating inefficiently is our administrative side of the house.

Fiction: Mr. Johnson cites numbers allegedly from the University of Toledo, saying that it could save up to $10 million dollars (over an undisclosed number of years) were it not for the burden of contract negotiations. Johnson speculates that similar savings could be realized at other institutions.

Fact: Mr. Johnson presented no facts and no data analysis. Only an assertion that the state is spend large amounts of money to hire consultants on restructuring, and to pay large lawyer fees to fight having to consult with the faculty.

Fact: Based on the independent reports and data about the source of inefficiency in higher education, we know where much more than tens of millions of dollars could be saved in Ohio public higher education. Students are paying more for administrative costs and getting less in the way of educational support.

The real cause of inefficiencies and rising costs in higher education are the growth of administrative costs. SB 5 and Governor Kasich call for greater “managerial flexibility.” We have seen what that sort of flexibility meant on Wall Street, and firms like Lehman Brothers, for people on Main Street – greater flexibility to grow managerial costs at the expense of the consumer,  and of the employees.

• The only collective voice fighting this pattern of managerialism is that of the faculty union.
• The only collective voice fighting to put the money where the students are is that of the faculty union.
• The principal collective voice fighting for affordable, high quality higher education is the faculty union.
• SB 5 seeks to silence that voice – it seeks to silence all of us – Make our voice heard.

The Senate and the IUC are about to make decisions based on misleading testimony and mistaken beliefs.”

Once again, the people are called upon to counter the disinformation campaign of administrators, who are unchecked in the current system and will do whatever their management wants. Poor administrative leadership harms Universities, not the salaries of faculty. WE are the University.