The number of university administrators is rising nationwide and so are the funds devoted to paying them, but at Tufts, the trend cannot be explained by an increasing student body.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10,160 people were employed as college administrators in the United States as of May 2003 and the number will continue to rise through 2012.
Tufts' administration has followed this national trend over the past two decades. In the 1983-1984 academic year there were 305 administrators employed by the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, according to the Tufts Factbook. Ten years later, in 1993-1994, the number had risen to 537-a 76 percent increase.
Last year the University employed 623 administrators, indicating that in the past 20 years, Tufts administrators have more than doubled in number.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the rising number of administrators is due to the rising number of students.
But at Tufts, the student body has actually shrunk over the same 20-year period. In 1984, there were 4,993 undergraduate students on campus. In 2003-2004, there were 4,837 undergrads - a decrease of 156 people, or three percent.
The student-to-administrator ratio has therefore dropped from 16.7:1 in 1983-1984 to 7.8:1 in 2003-2004. In comparison, Tufts' student-faculty ratio is 9:1, a figure the University proudly displays in the viewbook it gives to prospective students. Today at Tufts, there are more administrators per undergraduate student than there are faculty members.
Administrative employees at Tufts also include the staff that supports them: non-faculty professionals and clerical and technical workers, but not maintenance workers and janitorial staff. Currently, only 57 of the 623 administrators at Tufts are at the executive level.
Tufts' student-to-faculty ratio has also decreased since 1983-1984, when it was 13:1, showing that the University has hired more administrators and faculty members while keeping the number of undergraduates relatively stable.
But the dynamic between students and administrators is just as important as it is between students and their professors, according to Executive Director of Institutional Research Dawn Terkla.
"Administrators are here for the benefit of the students, just like the faculty, to ensure the best experience possible," Terkla said. "The administrators at Tufts work very, very hard. A lot of that is not visible to students, but trust me, they work long hours and weekends to make sure that their programs are seamless."
Terkla also insists that increases in the Tufts administration were made for justified reasons. "I believe they would only add staff when they feel that the work has become so great that they actually need someone to assist."
Tufts has eliminated administrative positions in the past in order to direct money elsewhere, however. In the 2001-2002 academic year, the University eliminated the post of Vice President to spend "more money on things that are more useful, such as faculty salaries," then-Provost Sol Gittleman said at the time.
Assistant Professor of Psychology Sam Sommers said that when it comes to governing bodies, quantity does not always equal quality. "Research suggests that having more people doesn't necessarily make a group better," Sommers said. "It's how people are utilized in relation to each other that determines how efficient a group of people can be."
He added that groups tend to work best when global objectives are broken down into manageable subtasks and individuals are given defined roles. In this way, leaders can avoid pitfalls like the diffusion of responsibility, Sommers said.
This strategy is embodied in the Officers of the Corporation, comprised of 14 senior administrators at Tufts, including President Larry Bacow and Senior Vice President and Provost Jamshed Bharucha. Each officer has a different function and oversees various programs within the University.
In the Officers of the Corporation, at least two members are not paid with resources that could be directed elsewhere - both James A. Stern and Joseph Neubauer, chair and vice chair of the Board of Trustees, respectively, hold unpaid positions.
At universities, "if there's more a sense of community, that also makes everyone more effective," Sommers said.
The idea of community is also is necessary to unite all members of a college campus, according to Patricia Gumport, professor of education at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research.
Gumport has extensively studied academic governance and the problems faced by leaders at educational institutions and she stresses the importance of communication between students, professors, and their administration.
"In my case-study research, I have seen examples of genuine leadership from each of these three groups, trying to evoke the best in people for the good of the whole," Gumport said. "The successful leaders who do the most to improve their campuses often have a clear vision and are quite savvy about how to collaborate with others to make it a reality."
