Administrative Careerism and PC

Administrative Careerism and PC Robert Weissberg hat the contemporary university is exceedingly "user friendly" is beyond ny reasonable doubt. To adapt an old folk saying, when it comes time for boosting self-esteem on the cheap, the academy is busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest. This obsequiousness is ubiquitous. While chan- cellors reaffirm their commitment to inclusiveness sans intellectual bound- aries, lowly teaching assistants award gentleperson's C's to functional illiterates. Such odious requirements as foreign language proficiency or familiarity with mathematics have largely vanished, lest these impede "education." University administrations now overflow with specialists assigned to rescue the academi- cally lame and halt. One of these saviors once requested that I drop a young lady from a course I taught two years back--only now did she realize that she was ill during my final, and expunging the course insured her graduation. Entire parallel curricula, everything from well-entrenched women's and black studies to "cutting edge" forays into whiteness, critical race, queer theory, and French flavored disorders too numerous to mention by name, now guarantee diplomas to those once lucky to survive high school. I, myself, am known for strict classroom decorum--if a student must read the school newspaper during lectures, I insist that he not obstruct the view of those seated behind him. My grading standard is brutal--A's are given only those with opposed thumbs able to walk upright. It is tempting to dismiss such perpetrator cravenness in terms of character or personality deficiencies. While this moralistic fervor makes superb therapy, it exaggerates the personal depravity of those overseeing today's cravenness at the expense of what Marxists called "objective conditions." This is not to sug- gest that these promiscuous flatterers are blameless. Corruption and indo- lence certainly abound. Rather, I shall submit that the contemporary university has generally rationally responded to conditions that, at least in the foresee- able future, are well beyond intellectual reform. The argument here concerns only a single player--the administration--and attempts to show that these paper pushers are reasonable, often honorable, creatures making the best of a depraved incentive structure. As in the Soviet system of old, today's universities can make deviates out of the most decent people. Robert Weissberg is professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801-3696. Palgrave Macmillan is releasing his latest book Polling, Policy, and Pub- lic Opinion: The Case Against Heeding the "Voice of the People"in 2002. 58 Kernan, Toby, Gottfried, and Weissberg 59 The Administrators If the usual malfeasance suspects were rounded up, administrators would be the first to be apprehended. This would have been less true fifty years ago. While romantics may still rhapsodize about faculty controlling academic life, this vision is now outdated. Universities have evolved into corporations gov- erned from the top down, and administrators thus serve in the pandering vanguard. Bureaucratic "culture" increasingly infuses department life rather than vice versa. Trustees and legislatures are oblivious to university machina- tions. Departmental sovereignty has become a fiction. Control over hiring-- that one quintessential departmental power--has virtually been ceded to the outside dictates of promoting diversity, finding places for career-minded spouses, or reducing cost by hiring non-tenured faculty and gypsy visitors. Ditto for promotion and tenure--what is decisive is whether something "will fly upstairs." Instructional details once entirely decided by professors, e.g., punishment for cheating or writing assignments, are increasingly adjudicated administratively. Meanwhile, untold deans exist solely to rescue students from mean-spirited professors, who find themselves powerless against bureaucratic intervention. Though this transfer of power is intrinsically important for subverting academic life, what draws our attention here is the accompanying value shift. The apparat may pontificate like professors or even claim professor's status--but do not be fooled. Governance by administrators is drastically different than faculty, or any other type, of decision-making. Warren Harding's father once quipped that it was a good thing that Warren was not born a women since he could never say "no." Administrators share Warren's predilection, at least when dealing with favored sects. What immediately comes to mind when hearing, "the moral courage of a dean"? Or, "the honesty of a college president"? This appease- ment penchant can be understood by considering four just-below-the-surface issues coloring today's university: (1) the exclusive nature of this "alternative life-style trans"; (2) recent bountifulness of these opportunities; (3) the fiscal benefit of the administrative calling; and, most crucially, (4) how the ambi- tious now climb up the occupational ladder. Taking Lifetime Administrative Vows When I began my academic career in 1969, administrative posts were brief interludes for those temporarily bored with teaching and research. They might have been likened to an impetuous fling and, the would-be paper pusher would soon (gleefully) return to his or her true love. Serious administrative positions typically went to distinguished academics at the twilight of illustrious careers. A renowned physicist might serve as college president in lieu of per- fecting vacuum tubes. A bureaucratic "career" was an admission of mediocrity or left to "scholars" with suspect "higher education administration" degrees. Intellectual loyalty, then, was always disciplinary, even if overseeing student 60 Academic Questions / Spring 2002 life, and assembling a managerial r6sum6 was nearly unthinkable to those seek- ing collegial respect. This bred independence from frivolous pressure---one could happily threaten to teach rather than acquiesce to outlandish demands. Today, by contrast, department life appears more a stepping-stone--few administrators seek to return home. The "your turn in the barrel" mentality has given way to the necessary seasoning model. This transformation from amateurism to professionalism is often evident in attire. The upwardly mobile engage in what sociologists call "anticipatory socialization." As in evolution, species become physically distinct as their surroundings change. To wit, the associate professor begins to dress deanish---dark conservative suits, white shirts, wingtips, all accessorized with an expensive leather bound appointment book or conspicuously displayed Palm Pilot. The administrative lingo--substituting "enhanced productivity" for "new ideas" and talking about "the college's ex- citing new initiative in..." is de rigueur. After sufficient play-acting, everybody just assumes that this wannabe must be genuine and, more often than not, our arriviste moves upward. Once admitted to the Noble Order, he leaves his academic colleagues behind, save a catastrophic performance. Even then, he likely prefers administrative positions at less prestigious schools rather than demotion to civilian life. Moreover, as the Communist Party once shrewdly attracted society's lead- ing elements to ensure its domination, administrators now have formal programs to uplift the wannabes (they have names like "leadership development"). A Chronicle of Higher Education article (16July 1999) details several of these national and regional "party schools" to role model and mentor faculty into deans and provosts. These programs increasingly target women and minori- ties and often entail total immersion in the administrative culture. The Ameri- can Council on Education Fellow Program's recent "class" of future bureaucrats, for example, consisted of 50 percent women and 30 to 35 percent minority. Talk about enhancing racial diversity and "alternative life-styles" predictably infuses this preparation. These programs are socialization mecha- nisms to replace intellectually rigorous disciplinary culture with "leadership." Fresh Opportunities The urge to flee into administrative work is hardly novel. Professors rou- tinely fantasize about deserting the classroom and evading yearly research activity reports. Interminable pointless meetings can get loathsome, but this may be a welcome relief from reading atrocious term papers. Sad to say, a modest impulse to administrate probably lurks in all of us. What probably prevented past mass migration was the dearth of opportunities--positions were scarce and, as noted, relief would be only temporary. Re-entering teaching, let alone picking up half-forgotten research, might even be more irksome after a five-year hiatus. Sucking it up and finding relief elsewhere, for example, gar- dening, made better sense. Kernan, Toby, Gottfried, and Weissberg 61 Today, administrative opportunities abound. At the University of Illinois, for example, this growth is physically obvious--we suffer from the bureaucratic edifice complex. While enrollments have remained steady for thirty years, handsome architectural monuments filled with industrious bureaucrats mul- tiply unchecked. In 1990, the Chroniclereported (28 March) that between 1975 and 1986 the number of college and university administrators increased by 17.9 percent, while full-faculty rose by 5.9 percent (enrollment grew by 9.5 percent). At UCLA during this period, germination in the "executive" class exceeded faculty increases by a factor

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