College Bubble Bath
4th April 2023
Steven Hayward at Power Line.
It is fun to take in the Chronicle of Higher Education every day, because it is like reading a trade journal for an industry that knows it is in decline, along the lines of daily newspapers or buggy whip makers. Every day the Chron operates from a cringe mode about the problems of declining enrollment, financial pressures, the poor morale among DEI staff and the rising backlash against it, and above all paranoia about Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Yesterday the Chron had an especially revealing article about labor shortages in higher education. This will certainly come as bizarre news for the armies of un- and under-employed Ph.ds and adjunct instructors everywhere. But it turns out faculty hiring isn’t the main problem. Colleges are having a difficult time hiring—wait for it—administrators.