What? A new Provost?

[Loyal Coug1]

Where the hell did this come from? Yet another administrative position? And a whole 'nother office of support staff, etc. And a less-than-impressive resume I must add. We now have an Anthropologist as a Pullman Chancellor, and an Education professor as a Provost. And a remote-working lame duck President. And 9 Vice Presidents, not to mention all the other campus Chancellors....

WSU selects T. Chris Riley-Tillman as next provost

An experienced higher education leader and expert in evidence-based educational practices, Riley-Tillman has been selected to serve as WSU’s next provost.

news.wsu.edu

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Building carefully from the top down....

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Where the hell did this come from? Yet another administrative position? And a whole 'nother office of support staff, etc. And a less-than-impressive resume I must add. We now have an Anthropologist as a Pullman Chancellor, and an Education professor as a Provost. And a remote-working lame duck President. And 9 Vice Presidents, not to mention all the other campus Chancellors....

WSU selects T. Chris Riley-Tillman as next provost

An experienced higher education leader and expert in evidence-based educational practices, Riley-Tillman has been selected to serve as WSU’s next provost.

news.wsu.edu

I was having a discussion with someone I know about student loan forgiveness and I told them that it didn't make sense to treat the symptoms if you aren't going to work on curing the disease. One of my concerns was administrative bloat at universities.

For WSU in particular, the number of administrative staff positions has ballooned from 831 employees in 2000 to 2051 employees in 2020. There has been a 150% increase in administrative positions in the same time that enrollment had only grown by 25%.

Employee Headcount | Institutional Research | Washington State University

ir.wsu.edu

It's pretty frickin' embarrassing really.

 

[Stretch 74]

I was having a discussion with someone I know about student loan forgiveness and I told them that it didn't make sense to treat the symptoms if you aren't going to work on curing the disease. One of my concerns was administrative bloat at universities.

For WSU in particular, the number of administrative staff positions has ballooned from 831 employees in 2000 to 2051 employees in 2020. There has been a 150% increase in administrative positions in the same time that enrollment had only grown by 25%.

Employee Headcount | Institutional Research | Washington State University

ir.wsu.edu

It's pretty frickin' embarrassing really.

For those with more knowledge of the workings of the administration, are there any valid/rational explanations for this HC growth other than the establishment of the Elson Floyd Medical School? Keep in mind that with 60 new school students per class, that only accounts for 240 new students in that program.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

For those with more knowledge of the workings of the administration, are there any valid/rational explanations for this HC growth other than the establishment of the Elson Floyd Medical School? Keep in mind that with 60 new school students per class, that only accounts for 240 new students in that program.

No there is no valid reason for this growth. There has been a multi-decade trend towards promoting classified staff to A/P, but Classified numbers overall have help pretty steady so that doesn't explain it away. If you were to look at the WSU numbers in depth (I try not to because it makes me want to barf), you would see a huge increase i Directors, Exec Directors, AVP's and VP's. Take the HR VP (nice lady). She has been in the same job with the same duties for many many years, except now she is a VP when it once was a director position, I believe that HR now has 2 or 3 directors under her. This is not isolated - it is the same everywhere else, but more prevalent in administration. And those that are lifers are the beneficiaries. Sit keep your mouth shut, go with the flow, and your raises and reclasses and promotions will follow. The Peter Principle (Peter is a Coug). Schulz has probably been the worst in this regard.

 

[dgibbons]

Reminds me of this.

 

[95coug]

Where the hell did this come from? Yet another administrative position? And a whole 'nother office of support staff, etc. And a less-than-impressive resume I must add. We now have an Anthropologist as a Pullman Chancellor, and an Education professor as a Provost. And a remote-working lame duck President. And 9 Vice Presidents, not to mention all the other campus Chancellors....

WSU selects T. Chris Riley-Tillman as next provost

An experienced higher education leader and expert in evidence-based educational practices, Riley-Tillman has been selected to serve as WSU’s next provost.

news.wsu.edu

The former provost was appointed to be Pullman chancellor, and has been performing both function for a year. Apparently that’s some sort of conflict (perfectly fair to ask why they realigned and created the conflict).

The fun part is the addition of modifiers to positions. It’s not just director, there are also executive directors. Not just VPs, but executive VP, assistant VP, associate VP.

And the really fun part - if you have people in Pullman and in, say, Spokane, who have the same job - the one in Pullman gets paid more because they have a greater “system impact.”

 

[95coug]

No there is no valid reason for this growth. There has been a multi-decade trend towards promoting classified staff to A/P, but Classified numbers overall have help pretty steady so that doesn't explain it away. If you were to look at the WSU numbers in depth (I try not to because it makes me want to barf), you would see a huge increase i Directors, Exec Directors, AVP's and VP's. Take the HR VP (nice lady). She has been in the same job with the same duties for many many years, except now she is a VP when it once was a director position, I believe that HR now has 2 or 3 directors under her. This is not isolated - it is the same everywhere else, but more prevalent in administration. And those that are lifers are the beneficiaries. Sit keep your mouth shut, go with the flow, and your raises and reclasses and promotions will follow. The Peter Principle (Peter is a Coug). Schulz has probably been the worst in this regard.

A month ago, she was Pullman chancellor & provost. Now, she'll be neither:

https://news.wsu.edu/news/2024/05/0..._campaign=wsunewsenewsletter&utm_medium=email

Seems to me like an opportunity to eliminate a high admin position and revert to the structure that WSU ran under just fine for 130 years. But...we won't.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

A month ago, she was Pullman chancellor & provost. Now, she'll be neither:

https://news.wsu.edu/news/2024/05/0..._campaign=wsunewsenewsletter&utm_medium=email

Seems to me like an opportunity to eliminate a high admin position and revert to the structure that WSU ran under just fine for 130 years. But...we won't.

Well this is good news. Her "indelible mark" (per Schulz) is that of utter nothingness. I'll stop short of saying utter failure, as you have to actually try to do something to fail at it.

Schulz:
The interim chancellor, provost and president will work together to determine the optimal administrative structure as a part of the upcoming organizational review process.

OK Schulz, you pathetic lame duck. You are gone in a year. It will be the job of the next President, as I've said hopefully a more CEO/CFO type which has been a trend in Higher Ed, to unwind the administrative shithole you have created. New Presidents, for better or worse, need to be able to bring in their own people. And fire the existing ones they don't cotton to. Hiring a new Provost at this time was a BS move. So fine, make him interim Chancellor, and stand pat for a year. Then get the F out of here.

 

[Observer11]

Wasnt she in charge of athletics?

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

I was having a discussion with someone I know about student loan forgiveness and I told them that it didn't make sense to treat the symptoms if you aren't going to work on curing the disease. One of my concerns was administrative bloat at universities.

For WSU in particular, the number of administrative staff positions has ballooned from 831 employees in 2000 to 2051 employees in 2020. There has been a 150% increase in administrative positions in the same time that enrollment had only grown by 25%.

Employee Headcount | Institutional Research | Washington State University

ir.wsu.edu

It's pretty frickin' embarrassing really.

Just go through the athletic department roster alone - its a sham.

Yes, we have programs that didn't exist previously and require oversight, but certainly not 150% worth.

Just to poke the bear, how big is the DEI department?

 

[95coug]

Well this is good news. Her "indelible mark" (per Schulz) is that of utter nothingness. I'll stop short of saying utter failure, as you have to actually try to do something to fail at it.

Schulz:
The interim chancellor, provost and president will work together to determine the optimal administrative structure as a part of the upcoming organizational review process.

OK Schulz, you pathetic lame duck. You are gone in a year. It will be the job of the next President, as I've said hopefully a more CEO/CFO type which has been a trend in Higher Ed, to unwind the administrative shithole you have created. New Presidents, for better or worse, need to be able to bring in their own people. And fire the existing ones they don't cotton to. Hiring a new Provost at this time was a BS move. So fine, make him interim Chancellor, and stand pat for a year. Then get the F out of here.

Two things he did with that statement - he told the new provost that he’s not going to be the interim chancellor. He also told the rest of us that this is going to be a bad pick. A committee composed of a lame duck president, a provost who’s been here a week, and a player to be named later.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

Two things he did with that statement - he told the new provost that he’s not going to be the interim chancellor. He also told the rest of us that this is going to be a bad pick. A committee composed of a lame duck president, a provost who’s been here a week, and a player to be named later.

Schulz is proving what an idiot he is. And our F-ing Board of Regents - where the F are they in all this?

 

[95coug]

Schulz is proving what an idiot he is. And our F-ing Board of Regents - where the F are they in all this?

My guess - focusing on their day jobs and whatever it is that they do with 99% of their time.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

My guess - focusing on their day jobs and whatever it is that they do with 99% of their time.

I imagine so - and so they should not have accepted Regent's appointments in the first place......