Plaintiffs Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Review Florida’s Ban on Academic Travel to Cuba

Accurate description of far too many.  However, to be fair, as inlibrarian notes, sometimes this attitude has been adopted because it really is such a hostile environment and any kind of stepping outside the box is likely to result in some kind of negative repercussion.

This is the most asinine piece I have read in the CHE in a very long time.  So, all administrators are authoritarians, libertarians, or lumps. And you, sir, are a pompous, arrogant fool who has to rely on convenient, catchy labels in order to deal with people in your neat little, narrow-minded world. You have a lazy mind and I suspect this is evident in the quality of your teaching and research.  In short, you are a fool.

No doubt you’re right, Julie. But in that case, the Lump becomes an enabler as well. Is it possible that hostile environments like the one inlibrarian describes exist and thrive because too many spineless Lumps enable them? Who was it that said, “People generally get the kind of government they deserve”? I wonder if that could apply to colleges and universities, as well as to nations.

I does seem as though “they” put something in the water that a new administrator drinks; the shift rarely takes more than a week or two.

Wow, how about some respectful dialogue?  We chastise our students for not being civil.  We have a responsibility to model civil behavior.

*sigh* A university is a large bureaucracy (sometimes a VERY large one) and in any such organizations there are all of these stereotypes.  I have never worked for a company that didn’t have it’s share of Lumps.  This is in no way a disease specific to universities.

I would, however, caution against assuming that any non-superstar is a lump.  There are a lot of dedicated administrators out there doing what they can or what they have to do to keep things running.  Extensive reporting requirements (to the federal government and, for public institutions, the state) take up a LOT of what looks like wasted time and overhead, but is in fact the way that the institution keeps the money flowing.  Much of those administrators time is spent keeping the back office out of the way of faculty and making sure the lights stay on.  

I guess what I am saying is that even the smallest college is the size of a mid-sized company, and has comparable problems and personalities.  An R1 is more like running a Fortune 500 company.  There are bound to be bad apples throughout the tree, but it is unfair to assume there are any more of these here than in any other industry.  Remember that the majority of administrators are making far less doing what they do for higher ed than they would make if they went to work for a big company.

And by the way, Barbarashell, it’s not really accurate to say that I have a low opinion of administrators in general. I’ve been pretty clear in these pages about the type of administrators I admire (and tried to emulate when I was an administrator)–basically, those who respect and trust faculty members, who get out of their way and let them do their good work, who see themselves as facilitators, not dictators. I’ve known several administrators like that in my long career, but, sadly, I can’t say that they’ve been in the majority. Do you disagree?

I am doing my best to get out on my own terms, but honestly, it has crossed my mind that ticking someone off would get me out of here with a cushion of unemployment compensation.

The only thing I would add to the conversation at this point is to observe that there are a good number of administrators working hard to make things better.  Higher Education administration is one of the most difficult settings in which to make such progress, because there are so many impediments, opposers, and roadblocks everywhere you look.

No. Maybe. There may be somethign about higher education that invites more of this type of behavior. Anecdotally, my brother left the military after 12 years to teach at a large university. He lasted a year. Couldn’t stand the incredibly slow pace at which things develop in higher ed. Went to work in industry and couldn’t be happier.  

finally, a reasonable response. Thanks for stating the obvious: the continuum from ineffective to effective, from dastardly to saintly, from inhibiting to facilitating is a characteristic of any category of employee, including faculty members. Why, why, why is there this persistent desire on the part of faculty members to skewer administrators? Stop complaining, and if you think you can do the job better, do it!

I found this article very useful as a reminder of the motivations behind certain behaviors; it always helps me to consider why some people do what they do (or don’t do).

The article describes to perfection the recently retired Provost of a major university to whom I reported as a Director. Couldn’t have described him any better had I tried. At our first meeting I asked: “Do you want to schedule regular meetings with me?” No. “Would you like me to send you monthly activity reports?” OH, no! (emphasis as spoken). His tenure and my time under him went exactly as you might predict. My whining aside, I would be interested to know just how wide-spread this type is, though, and not just in the sense of “Oh, everybody has one”. @Misanthropic wrote earlier that lumps exist not just in the academy, but in industry, too, yet s/he defends academic lumps by pointing out the financial sacrifice they make to administer with their EdDs. I respectfully call BS, and I apologize for fitting a stereotype myself, but I submit only perhaps the top 15% of university administrators across the board *could* survive as even middle managers in the real world, let alone as CEOs or senior executives. They are not sacrificing to “administer” as academics at a university; it’s all their skill sets allow. In my experience as an: employee at a TOP public university (5 years), admin there gets a B+. Manager at a major university (5 years) – admin gets a B+. Assoc Director at a selective liberal arts (1 year) – an A. Director at a so-called major university (15 years) – a C at best, and a solid F for the last TWO Provosts to whom I reported. That last lump retired with a $120K+ pension AND a six-figure “consulting” contract with his former employer. Did I make poor choices to experience this? Perhaps, in hindsight, but those last two lumps were not in place when I started. Several factors enter into continuing lump management: region, history, perceived status, the Peter Principle, but also importantly the general feeling emanating from President’s office as to what s/he may want: self aggrandizement, minimal strife, a political career, and even occasionally what is good for the university and most importantly, its students. That latter attitude used to exist among academic leaders; the corporate type in the academy has a different agenda.

First of all, I’m not stereotyping anybody, because I haven’t talked about anybody in particular. I believe it’s perfectly legitimate, when dealing with large groups of people, to identify broad types or categories. I never said that similar categories couldn’t be constructed for faculty, nor did I say that ALL administrators fall into one of these categories–although, generally speaking, I do think it’s fair to say that most administrators either mostly do good things, mostly do bad things, or don’t do much of anything. That seems self-evident to me, and I don’t understand why it has evoked such vitriol. 

As for this particular type, just look at all the posts above that say, essentially, “Yes, I know this person well.” It’s not like I’m making this stuff up. It’s based on 27 years of observation. Am I generalizing? Of course, of necessity. This is a 700-word blog post, not a 500-page book. Am I way off base? I don’t think so.

As to the question of what I hope to accomplish, I’m trying first of all to hold a mirror up to administrators who fall into this category, to let them know how the rest of us view them. Based on several of the posts, I’d say I succeeded at that. I also believe, as I said above, that faculty basically get the government they deserve. If an institution has more than its share of administrators who get by without making any real decisions, then the faculty are at least partly to blame for that situation–and, once they recognize it, they can take steps to change it.

Rob

“Simply put, The Lump doesn’t really do much of anything, whether out of sheer laziness or apathy or a desire not to upset the applecart or just an overdeveloped sense of self-preservation. The Lump is the administrator who never answers your e-mails. The one you rarely see except at meetings. The one who attends all the meetings but doesn’t say much. The one who, when asked a direct question, will hem and haw, dissemble and deflect.”

By this definition, do you mean The Lump Liz, editor of this nonsense who fires people who cause her to upset her applecart???  And if you are that passionate about this, shouldn’t you be defending Ms. Riley???

Im not sure. I have been a college administrator for over 25 years and during that time I have witnessed a great many inept administrators, but that didnt make them dictators. The problem, as I see it, is that they dont know if they are doing a good job, they just assume they are. They usually dont ask for feedback and professional development is seen as a weakness. What I see inbedded in your comments is that faculty need respect and that apparently most, if not all, do good work. That respect thing goes two ways and it must also be earned. I have supervised excellent faculty and I have supervised horrendous faculty- years in the classroom did not seem to make a difference.  What I cant seem to get you to agree on is that there are good and bad administrators as well as good and bad teachers. In my view, neither have a corner on the market. One final point, as a senior administrator I can and do something about ineffective supervisors [aka administrators], whereas I cannot do much, if anything about ineffective [tenured] faculty.

I like your metaphors better than mine, nomad.

How about a follow-up article on the faculty lump who functions much like an adjunct; that is, teaches, holds office hours, then goes home.  (Most adjuncts  do way more than that  but are not expected/required to.)  Some full time faculty do the same thing, for way more money, leaving all the work of the department and College to others.

Yes, there are faculty on the same continuum. And anyone –faculty or administration–who continues to treat higher ed as an “Us vs. Them” environment where all administrators are evil, all faculty are lazy, all staff are incompetent, etc., is part of the problem. When you forget that we should be a team, you lose sight of our mission. I echo ovpstaff, “if you think you can do a better job” then please step up to the plate.