University Deregulation

State universities have an enormous amount of bureaucracy: reports, evaluations, security checks, monitoring arrangements, computer surveillance disguised as support, mid-level committees reviewing the decisions of lower level committees. The layers have been there for so long many people forget what it was like to operate without all the endless checks and imbalances. As budget cuts force state universities to reduce their staffs, as units are consolidated so that fewer secretaries are performing more work, it would be worth considering a reduction in the amount of bureaucracy.

Yes, in my middle age I have come to sound Republican, but really this is a plea for more autonomy for the individual university units to carry out their mission without all the restrictions that bureaucracies impose. Professors, lecturers, department heads, librarians and administrative assistants are constantly double and triple checking before acting, because of the obligation to enter any decision into the university administrative apparatus.

But now we are operating with greatly reduced resources, fewer administrators fulfilling the same high level of regulations.

So as a cost cutting measure, and in the spirit of neo-liberal university administration--Why not reduce the restrictions on computers, simplify transactions between departments, eliminate some of the redundant administrative reviews?

If we are going to act like businesses here at the university, then let us stream line the bureaucracy while we are cutting everything else.