Re: This may be of interest

Dear Sam

an excellent question re comparisons.

Unlike departmental external reviews, non-academic portfolios do *not* undergo similar arms-length peer review whose results are then made available to the wider community. Instead, SFU commissioned a consulting firm - Cubane - to look into how its admin compared to other universities. Unsurprisingly, an entity hired by our administrative units concluded our administrative units were completely in line.

Were I a cynic, I'd think that non-academic administrative bloat at other universites was similarly justified, by hiring someone to assert it is justified. It's an interesting house of cards. Memorial University had a bloated administration for years; it wasn't until they were audited by government that it was clear just -how- bad. But I'm sure MUN had, in previous years, convinced itself its faculty-admin ratio was in line with others in Canada.

I very much doubt Federal regulations and guidelines *require* us to have upwards of 150 'marketing and communications' experts. Nor that such experts are required at the level of Department, in addition.

cheers

Nilima

On Thu, Feb 1, 2024 at 8:48 AM Sam Black <samuel_black@sfu.ca> wrote:

Hi Lyn,

This is a great discussion.

Do you have data on how SFU's rising administrative expenses compare with comparable schools?

I've head friends on the management side tell me that rising admin costs are partly in response to increased Federal regulations and compliance measures. I don't know if there is anything to the idea. But that hypothesis strains credibility if SFU is an outlier on the upside of administrative bloat.

Thanks,

Sam

Sam Black

Assoc. Prof. Philosophy, SFU

This note is not AI-generated.

I respectfully acknowledge that SFU is on the unceded ancestral and traditional territories of the səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Nations.

From: Lyn Bartram <lyn@sfu.ca>
Sent: February 1, 2024 8:05:19 AM
To: Oliver Schulte
Cc: Nilima Nigam; Faculty Forum Mail List
Subject: Re: This may be of interest

Last year I ran some data with respect to headcounts of employees. I used a metric of ratio to student population to normalise the data. Faculty and staff ratios remain essentially flat for over 10 years but there is a huge spike in senior management and senior admin hiring.

Lyn Bartram, Professor
SIAT

Simon Fraser University

On Feb 1, 2024, at 08:01, Oliver Schulte <oschulte@cs.sfu.ca> wrote:

Thank you Nilima, interesting read. The author seems to advocate for Queen's raising revenue through raising tuition fees, and perhaps cutting some expenses by reducing faculty salaries. At SFU I would say we don't have a revenue problem, we have an expense problem. Over the last 11 years, student and faculty numbers have been basically flat. What has gone up drastically is revenue and spending on administration. Revenue is still up over a longer time period, but down a lot compared to last year.

Regards,

Oliver

Oliver

On Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 6:01 PM Nilima Nigam <nigam@math.sfu.ca> wrote:

Dear all
this essay by Ken Coates in the Globe and Mail may be of interest, the same way stepping on Lego is. It's about the financial troubles at various universities.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-financial-trouble-at-queens-university-a-symptom-of-wider-higher/

I don't agree with all the arguments. But I fear this is a mild version of what many taxpayers may *think*, when universities go to the provinces to increase budgets.

"Universities, and not just Queen’s, should note that there is precious little appetite for immediate provincial government assistance. The public does not feel the pain of Queen’s and other public universities. Almost no one is clamouring for expensive bailouts. A few years ago, universities were seen as crucial to Canada’s economic survival. Now, they are on their own."

cheers

Nilima

--

Nilima Nigam
Professor
Dept. of Mathematics
Simon Fraser University