Getting the Numbers Right

Happy Memorial Day weekend.

In yesterday's News Gazette there was a story (Costly administrator posts a factor in spiraling tuitions) that described a report produced by Illinois Senate Democrats, and can be found at: 

http://www.illinoissenatedemocrats.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4850:senate-democrat-report-on-executive-compensation-at-public-colleges-and-universities&catid=101:blog-posts&Itemid=450

Near the bottom of the page, there is a video and throughout the actual report, there are allegations (I assume true) that, "...in one recent 5 or 6 year period, the number of administrative employees at colleges and universities in Illinois increased by more than a third. That is a massive growth of non-instructional personnel at our institutions of public higher education."

There are lots of other components to the report that focus on compensation and perks, length of contracts for senior administrators, etc. You can and should draw your own conclusions about those matters. I am focusing on the administrative question today because it appears that Parkland College is guilty by association. That is not right. There are data.

In the report, page 11, it says:

"At community colleges in Illinois, there was a 13.5% increase in full time equivalency administrative staff from 2005 to 2013. During the same period, there was a 6.8% increase in FTE instructional faculty, and a 3.9% increase in FTE student enrollment.23
To summarize, while tuition and fees have risen exponentially, the corresponding increases in staff is not reflected in increased numbers of faculty, but in increases in the numbers of administrators, both nation-wide and in Illinois."

In November of 2012, I wrote a post about this very issue, called The Golden Ratio. In that posting, I wrote that two economic researchers believed that they had identified an ideal ratio of factly to administrators as 3:1. For colleges to operate most effectively, they say, each institution should employ three tenured or tenure-track faculty for every one full-time administrator. 

Here is an excerpt:

1.     What is Parkland's ratio of administrators to faculty? 

Response: For the current academic year, there are 189 Full-time, tenured (or tenure-track) faculty and 39 administrators, for a ratio of 4.8:1.

In other words, there are 4.8 FT faculty for every 1 administrator. If we exclude administrators that have been hired solely to administer grants, the ratio is 5:1 (5.1:1 to be exact).

If the ratio of 3 FT faculty for every 1 administrator were to be embraced by Parkland College, we would need to hire an additional 24 administrative positions. 

We have historically prioritized full-time teaching faculty positions.

 2.     What is the ratio of full time faculty to part time?  

Response: 54% Full-time and 45% Part-time.

Our performance indicator benchmark ratio is 60:40. We are off by 5%.

Proportion of equated contact hours (ECH) by full and part-time faculty 

Faculty Fall Load Data* % ECH for	2006  (Fall 2005)	2007  (Fall 2006)	2008  (Fall 2007)	2009  (Fall 2008)	2010  (Fall 2009)
Full-time faculty (includes overloads and emeritus)	56.8%	55.1%	55.7%	56.4%	54.3%
Part-time faculty	43.2%	44.9%	44.3%	43.6%	45.7%

The 2015 update to this information is even more interesting. In 2012, Parkland employed 39 administrators. Today, we have 43. That's an increase of just under 7% and it is temporary. Due to the re-organization of academic services, we are (for one year) overstaffed in administration. By July of 2016, our total count will be less that 37. Possibly as low as 35.

The math: 

Using 2015 numbers, our ratio is 4.39:1 and in July of 2016, it will be around  5.7:1. 

The Senate Democrat's report, however, uses a student to administrator ratio.

"In 1975, colleges and universities employed one administrator for every eighty-four students and one professional staffer—admissions and communications officers, information technology specialists—for every fifty students.19 By 2005, the administrator-to-student ratio had dropped to one administrator for every sixty-eight students while the ratio of professional staffers had dropped to one for every twenty-one students.20" 

For Parkland College, using 2013-2014 data, our credit student to administrator ratio is 497:1. This ratio does not include the 4000 or so non-credit student that enroll each year, yet our administrative count does include those that are responsible for the non-credit programs.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that friends, family, neighbors, and taxpayers have correct data and an understanding of what happens at the community's College.

Let's be sure the facts are known. Painting with too big of a brush makes for sloppy work.





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