Dear University Community,

Here's Stanley Fish's op-ed article in Wednesday's NY Times. He comments
on some proposed legislation to "correct" the situation. (Free
registration might be
required.)

"Colleges Caught in a Vise"

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/18/opinion/18FISH.html?ex=1064895368&ei=1&en=de617f2981beca5f  <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/18/opinion/18FISH.html?ex=1064895368&ei=1&en=de617f2981beca5f>


Respectfully,

Stephen Leather

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Mike Russel wrote:

Someone who wishes to remain anonymous sent me the website listed below
for information on university budgets. The link is to a publication of a
federal agency, the National Center for Education Statistics. It
includes a wealth of data on university expenditures.

Table 347 sheds some light on what public universities spend on academic
affairs. It is difficult to compare the data to what happens here.
Perhaps the budget and economic status committee would like to
investigate the matter. According to the table, public universities
during the year 1999-2000 spent 31% of their income on instruction, 7.9%
on academic support (which apparently includes administrative staff),
2.2% on libraries, 4.5% on scholarships, and 10.5% on research. Some of
these categories are vaguely defined. Research could well include
institutional research like that conducted here by Dick Gruezemacher's
office. Still, the total of the above categories comes to 56.1%.

Also interesting is Table 350 which displays educational and general
expenditures of public universities from 1976 to 2000. Especially
striking is the declining percentage of money devoted to instruction and
the rising cost of administation. During the period 1976-77, the
percentage alloted to instruction was 39; by 1999-2000, it had declined
to 34. During the same periods, the percentage of the budgets alloted to
administration rose from 13 to 17.1.

Mike Russell

Here is the link:



http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/digest02/list_tables3.asp#c3a_9