Dismantling Administration

 Representative of a typical administrator. By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19854440

Related to this, take a look at this article. I’ll reproduce some parts of it, and then link to another article, and then make some comments at the end.

The number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25 years, vastly outpacing the growth in the number of students or faculty, according to an analysis of federal figures. 

The disproportionate increase in the number of university staffers who neither teach nor conduct research has continued unabated in more recent years… 

…Universities have added these administrators and professional employees even as they’ve substantially shifted classroom teaching duties from full-time faculty to less-expensive part-time adjunct faculty and teaching assistants, the figures show… 

…Part-time faculty and teaching assistants now account for half of instructional staffs at colleges and universities, up from one-third in 1987, the figures show. 

During the same period, the number of administrators and professional staff has more than doubled. That’s a rate of increase more than twice as fast as the growth in the number of students. 

It’s not possible to tell exactly how much the rise in administrators and professional employees has contributed to the increase in the cost of tuition and fees… 

…But critics say the unrelenting addition of administrators and professional staffs can’t help but to have driven this steep increase. 

At the very least, they say, the continued hiring of nonacademic employees belies university presidents’ insistence that they are doing everything they can to improve efficiency and hold down costs. 

“It’s a lie. It’s a lie. It’s a lie,” said Richard Vedder, an economist and director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. 

“I wouldn’t buy a used car from a university president,” said Vedder. “They’ll say, ‘We’re making moves to cut costs,’ and mention something about energy-efficient lightbulbs, and ignore the new assistant to the assistant to the associate vice provost they just hired.”… 

...The ratio of nonacademic employees to faculty has also doubled. There are now two nonacademic employees at public and two and a half at private universities and colleges for every one full-time, tenure-track member of the faculty. 

Centralization has been promoted as a way to reduce costs, but Vedder points out that it has not appeared to reduce the rate of hiring of administrators and professional staffs on campus—or of incessant spikes in tuition… 

…“It’s almost Orwellian,” said Vedder. “They’ll say, ‘We’ll save money if we centralize.’ Then they hire a provost or associate provost or an assistant business manager in charge of shared services, and then that person hires an assistant, and you end up with more people than you started with.” 

In higher education, “Everyone now is a chief,” he said. “And there are a lot fewer Indians.” 

And if that is not enough, how about this: 

By contrast, a major factor driving increasing costs is the constant expansion of university administration. According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions. 

Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase. 

As a faculty member, I can attest to this. Faculty are downsized concurrently with a relentless expansion of administration and staff. Faculty are held accountable to how they spend every microsecond of their workday, and at the same time incompetent administrators have lower and lower responsibility and accountability as they rise in the academic hierarchy. 

The more administrators talk about “tight budgets” and “cost cutting measures”, the more administration and staff they hire, the more expensive out-of-state meetings they attend, the more of their buddies are invited to come and “train the faculty,” and the more fluff and nonsense they waste money on. Much of what administrators do is self-serving: they use the authority of their positions to the advantage of administration (of which they are part) at the expense of faculty and, above all, students (who have to pay, via tuition, for this bloated administrative infrastructure). 

What about the excuse that all these administrators are required because of the expansion of regulations? Guess what – more self-serving behavior. Who do you think are making up all these regulations? Academic administrators working for government and for accreditation agencies. Where do these people come from? Look at the situation in which people switch back and forth between government positions and corporate lobbyists – it is the same principle in academia. It’s the same general pool of parasitic, self-serving administrators that fill the academic administrative posts and also fill the positions in government and accreditation agencies dreaming up more regulations to justify even more administrative hiring. 

What about the “demands of students and their families?” If only those students and families understood how little the students actually benefit from a school having more Deans, Vice Deans, Associate Deans, Assistant Deans, Presidents, Vice Presidents and all of their respective staffs! That’s just another excuse…have you noticed that American academic performance continues to decline despite our expansion of ever-more administration to “help” “students and their families?” In the end, the administrators are not really helping the “students and their families” – they are helping themselves. And why are students ill-prepared for college in the first place (one excuse often cited for hiring more administration)? One reason is that these scenarios play out at the public school level as well; anyone who has a child in American public schools understand how much time is wasted with non-academic fluff at the expense of a rock-solid education.

If all of this administration could be justified by the fact that American education was a well-oiled machine that would be one thing. But that’s not the case. The administrators ultimately cause problems requiring hiring even more administration to fix. Work creating even more work, a feedback loop that will continue until colleges end up having more administration and staff than they do students (faculty have already been out-numbered long ago). It’s like a metastatic cancer and it can only end up by killing off the host. 

Solution? Faculty and students need to form an alliance to promote the best interests of their institutions and the students who attend those institutions against the self-serving behavior of runaway administration. A stand needs to be made or the student-faculty foundation is going to crumble under the weight of the gigantic administrative superstructure, whose sheer mass is much-too-much to handle.

Alternative Treatments For Musculoskeletal Pain

Physical therapists.  Citations for pictures at end of post.

Here is a refreshing article suggesting that instead of just prescribing medication, doctors should suggest exercise therapy and "psychosocial interventions" - a change from the 'quick fix" attitude of just popping a pill to solve very problem.  The conclusion of the abstract:

This review presents a comprehensive summary and critical assessment of current evidence for the treatment of pain presentations in primary care. The evidence synthesis of interventions for common musculoskeletal pain presentations shows moderate-strong evidence for exercise therapy and psychosocial interventions, with short-term benefits only from pharmacological treatments. Future research into optimal dose and application of the most promising treatments is needed.

Citations for pictures:

By _US_Navy_100723-N-7214P-020_Machinist's_Mate_Fireman_George_F._Avinger_practices_cone_drills_during_physical_therapy_in_the_Comprehensive_Combat_and_Complex_Casualty_Care_facility_at_Naval_Medical_Center_San_Diego.jpg: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Anastasia Puscian_US_Navy_090508-F-7885G-021_Staff_Sgt._Hugo_Reiner,_a_physical_therapy_craftsman_aboard_the_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Comfort_(T-AH_20),_makes_a_wrist_brace_for_Teresa_De_la_Pena_during_a_Continuing_Promise_200.jpg: U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Danielle GrannanUS_Navy_070917-N-8704K-072_Lt._Gwen_Smith,_attached_to_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Comfort_(T-AH_20),_performs_physical_therapy_for_Marcus_Pryce_at_the_Arima_Health_Facility.jpg: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Karsten_US_Navy_070706-N-8704K-101_Lt._Gwen_Smith,_attached_to_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Comfort_(T-AH_20),_performs_physical_therapy_with_the_help_of_translator_Zoela_Armstrong_at_the_Paul_Brown_Arena.jpg: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joshua Karsten_US_Navy_081610-A-6522B-002_Physical_therapist_Lt._Cmdr._Mitchel_Ideue,_Officer_in_Charge_of_Inpatient_Services_at_Landstuhl_Regional_Medical_Center,_in_Landstuhl,_Germany,_gives_Army_Sgt._Charlie_McCall_a_physical_therapy_trea.jpg: U.S. Navy photo_US_Navy_091003-N-8960W-011_Gunner's_Mate_2nd_Class_Patrick_Cornwell_undergoes_an_exam_by_Lt._Cristi_Zohlen_to_document_his_shoulder_pain_in_the_physical_therapy_clinic_aboard_the_aircraft_carrier_USS_Nimitz_(CVN_68).jpg: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Robert Winn_US_Navy_020128-N-6077T-008_CVN_74_crew_member_receives_medical_treatment_aboard_ship.jpg: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Kevin H. Tierneyderivative work: Jnyles (talk) - _US_Navy_100723-N-7214P-020_Machinist's_Mate_Fireman_George_F._Avinger_practices_cone_drills_during_physical_therapy_in_the_Comprehensive_Combat_and_Complex_Casualty_Care_facility_at_Naval_Medical_Center_San_Diego.jpg_US_Navy_090508-F-7885G-021_Staff_Sgt._Hugo_Reiner,_a_physical_therapy_craftsman_aboard_the_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Comfort_(T-AH_20),_makes_a_wrist_brace_for_Teresa_De_la_Pena_during_a_Continuing_Promise_200.jpgUS_Navy_070917-N-8704K-072_Lt._Gwen_Smith,_attached_to_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Comfort_(T-AH_20),_performs_physical_therapy_for_Marcus_Pryce_at_the_Arima_Health_Facility.jpg_US_Navy_070706-N-8704K-101_Lt._Gwen_Smith,_attached_to_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Comfort_(T-AH_20),_performs_physical_therapy_with_the_help_of_translator_Zoela_Armstrong_at_the_Paul_Brown_Arena.jpg_US_Navy_081610-A-6522B-002_Physical_therapist_Lt._Cmdr._Mitchel_Ideue,_Officer_in_Charge_of_Inpatient_Services_at_Landstuhl_Regional_Medical_Center,_in_Landstuhl,_Germany,_gives_Army_Sgt._Charlie_McCall_a_physical_therapy_trea.jpg_US_Navy_091003-N-8960W-011_Gunner's_Mate_2nd_Class_Patrick_Cornwell_undergoes_an_exam_by_Lt._Cristi_Zohlen_to_document_his_shoulder_pain_in_the_physical_therapy_clinic_aboard_the_aircraft_carrier_USS_Nimitz_(CVN_68).jpg_US_Navy_020128-N-6077T-008_CVN_74_crew_member_receives_medical_treatment_aboard_ship.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14511419

Life with courage or failure by default

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. (Capricho No 43). Found in the collection of State Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images

Imagine yourself at the end of your life: what would your biggest regret be?

Mine would be that I have lived a life of fear. My fear is this of being a failure and causing disappointment.

I always wanted not to fail. But I never wanted to succeed.

I always wanted not to disappoint. But I never wanted to make someone proud of me.

My entire life has been marked by fear. Or lack of courage.

Recently I was listening to Simon Sinek (again). This time the talk was about leadership. Simon believes that a great leader is not defined by charisma or vision, but by courage.

Does this apply to all of us? Maybe.

Even if we do not lead anyone at work, we still need to manage our own life trajectory or this of our families. If we do not have courage, then we would fail at least on a personal, if not professional, level.

To a great extent, courage depends upon our financial situation. Do you have enough to live, if your courage brings a failure? If the answer is yes, then you could afford to be courageous.

At the other end of the spectrum – if you have nothing to lose, courage is also easily achievable.

The best example is this by J.K. Rowling. During her Harvard Commencement, she talked about the benefits of failure.

The biggest revelation was that when one hits rock bottom, the fear of failure fizzles away.

When there is nothing to lose anymore, courage emerges. Rowling said, “rock bottom became solid foundation, on which I rebuilt my life”. And further, “Failure, is inevitable unless you live so cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all. And this is a failure by default.”

Is my entire life a failure by default? Am I ever going to gather the courage I need to taste a real life, life without fear? The next years will put me to the test. At present, I am stuck in the middle between having too little to be courageous, and having too much to lose.

Personalized Genetics For Deodorant Use

By No machine-readable author provided. Dickbauch~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=500634

Personalized genetics can be used for all sorts of things; apparently now it can determine whether you need to use deodorant.  Axillary (armpit) odor seems to be predominantly determined by variants of the ABCC11 gene (which also determines wet vs. dry earwax).  A study has found that individuals (of those studied) with the non-odor genotype were over-represented in the group that never used deodorant, which makes sense - they don't need it.  However, a large majority of white Europeans with the non-odor phenotype did use deodorant, while a small fraction of those who do have axillary odor do not use deodorant.  Therefore, social and cultural factors are at play. One may assume that some of the non-odor people who use deodorant may have been using deodorant since adolescence and may be unaware that they do not need it (they assume the lack of smell is due to deodorant use and not their genetics) and/or they adopt a "better safe than sorry attitude") toward it. As to why those who need it don't use it, who knows?  Also, the non-odor genotype is more frequently found in east Asians, who therefore would be less likely to need to use deodorant.  Abstract:

Earwax type and axillary odor are genetically determined by rs17822931, a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located in the ABCC11 gene. The literature has been concerned with the Mendelian trait of earwax, although axillary odor is also Mendelian. Ethnic diversity in rs17822931 exists, with higher frequency of allele A in east Asians. Influence on deodorant usage has not been investigated. In this work, we present a detailed analysis of the rs17822931 effect on deodorant usage in a large (N∼17,000 individuals) population cohort (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)). We found strong evidence (P=3.7 × 10−20) indicating differential deodorant usage according to the rs17822931 genotype. AA homozygotes were almost 5-fold overrepresented in categories of never using deodorant or using it infrequently. However, 77.8% of white European genotypically nonodorous individuals still used deodorant, and 4.7% genotypically odorous individuals did not. We provide evidence of a behavioral effect associated with rs17822931. This effect has a biological basis that can result in a change in the family's environment if an aerosol deodorant is used. It also indicates potential cost saving to the nonodorous and scope for personalized genetics usage in personal hygiene choices, with consequent reduction of inappropriate chemical exposures for some.

Team building: to entertain or challenge

Americans have a strange attachment to entertainment; in fact, they have the propensity to turn everything into entertainment.

This attachment is so preposterous that even team building is frequently based upon entertainment activities.

Here are some variations of team building events that I have witnessed, participated in, or heard about:

• treasure hunt

• ropes course

• silly games while sitting around tables and eating

• going out to a restaurant/pub

• going out to the bowling alley

• talking for five hours about each other's personality types

I found even more entertainment - type activities masquerading under the cover of "team building" events.

It was reassuring, however that among all the nonsense, there was also a suggestion for "community work". I agree -  when you work next to each other, you may learn more about each other and could be united by the common work goal.

If entertainment was the path to team building, you could imagine all future Navy SEALs being jetted to luxurious all-inclusive beach resorts on your tax money, and given a week of idleness, booze, excess food, sunbathing, good company, and a few icebreakers.

Instead, the wanna-be SEALs have something called Hell week. And here is the description:

"Hell Week is the defining event ... It is held early on – in the 3rd week of First Phase – before the Navy makes an expensive investment in SEAL operational training. Hell Week consists of 5 1/2 days of cold, wet, brutally difficult operational training on fewer than four hours of sleep. Hell Week tests physical endurance, mental toughness, pain and cold tolerance, teamwork, attitude, and your ability to perform work under high physical and mental stress, and sleep deprivation. Above all, it tests determination and desire. On average, only 25% of SEAL candidates make it through Hell Week, the toughest training in the U.S. Military. It is often the greatest achievement of their lives, and with it comes the realization that they can do 20X more than they ever thought possible. It is a defining moment that they reach back to when in combat. They know that they will never, ever quit, or let a teammate down."
 
"They will never let a teammate down", does this sound like  your mainstream corporate culture?
 
You need a real team to pull together a difficult task and address a problem or crisis. 

Therefore, it is a good idea to know how difficult situations transform your "teammates"? You need to know who becomes snappy, anxious, angry, panicky, and unreliable. You need to know who avoids responsibility and would ditch you under critical circumstances.

I have witnessed all of these unsavory behaviors since my institution has dipped into numerous crises in the past six years. The only silver lining I find in this roller-coaster experience is that I know who the true teammates are. Unfortunately, they are not too many.

Body Composition And Diet

Protein shake on left.  By Sandstein - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6068429

Here’s an article on body composition and diet.  Note that points 4 and 6 are consistent with mainstream bodybuilding advice, which is reassuring because many people have been following that advice (but note that diets very high in protein can be rough on the kidneys over time, so caveat emptor. Points 1-3 are consistent with common sense (also reassuring).  Point 5 should also be common sense, but is a necessary antidote to those who fixate that their particular form of dieting is “best for everyone” rather than just best for them.  Point 7 falls into the same boat; both methods (intermittent vs daily caloric restriction) can be useful for folks who want to lose weight. Point 8 makes sense – dietary success may depend on mitigating the adaption of the body to the diet, and point 9 is that more study is required. Abstract:

Position Statement: The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) bases the following position stand on a critical analysis of the literature regarding the effects of diet types (macronutrient composition; eating styles) and their influence on body composition. The ISSN has concluded the following. 1) There is a multitude of diet types and eating styles, whereby numerous subtypes fall under each major dietary archetype. 2) All body composition assessment methods have strengths and limitations. 3) Diets primarily focused on fat loss are driven by a sustained caloric deficit. The higher the baseline body fat level, the more aggressively the caloric deficit may be imposed. Slower rates of weight loss can better preserve lean mass (LM) in leaner subjects. 4) Diets focused primarily on accruing LM are driven by a sustained caloric surplus to facilitate anabolic processes and support increasing resistance-training demands. The composition and magnitude of the surplus, as well as training status of the subjects can influence the nature of the gains. 5) A wide range of dietary approaches (low-fat to low-carbohydrate/ketogenic, and all points between) can be similarly effective for improving body composition. 6) Increasing dietary protein to levels significantly beyond current recommendations for athletic populations may result in improved body composition. Higher protein intakes (2.3-3.1 g/kg FFM) may be required to maximize muscle retention in lean, resistance-trained subjects under hypocaloric conditions. Emerging research on very high protein intakes (>3 g/kg) has demonstrated that the known thermic, satiating, and LM-preserving effects of dietary protein might be amplified in resistance-training subjects. 7) The collective body of intermittent caloric restriction research demonstrates no significant advantage over daily caloric restriction for improving body composition. 8) The long-term success of a diet depends upon compliance and suppression or circumvention of mitigating factors such as adaptive thermogenesis. 9) There is a paucity of research on women and older populations, as well as a wide range of untapped permutations of feeding frequency and macronutrient distribution at various energetic balances combined with training. Behavioral and lifestyle modification strategies are still poorly researched areas of weight management.

Lessons in leadeship and team building

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/US_Navy_SEALs_in_from_water.jpg

I have always admired the army and its people - not the final destination of combat, but the discipline, comradery, and synchrony in achieving well-defined goals.

These attributes can also make or break any team, business, or company.

So, then I thought, there might be some valuable lessons to learn from highly functional military groups, in which team structure must be invincible and effective.

In my google search, I found this post:

From the Battlefield to the Boardroom: A Navy SEAL's Guide to Business Leadership Success

I highly recommend the post to those who are a team member or lead a team.

As Simon Sinek says, in the army people watch each other's backs, in the private sector, they backstab. Maybe we can all learn more about these behaviors.

Branding yourself, your business, or your company

I know that our blog has multiple personality disorder. My husband and I are all over the place – we write about science, jobs + related frustrations, herbs, finances, cancer, gardens, cooking, etc.

So, following up on our tradition – here is another post that probably you do not expect.

It is about branding. It was triggered by a talk by Simon Sinek, If You Don't Understand People, You Don't Understand Business.

Simon turns upside down the marketing/branding strategies employed by most companies. According to him, the businesses do not need to obsessively ask customers what exactly they expect, want, crave, look for, etc.

What companies need to do is to find their own symbol and declare their own mission. The companies have to define their own strong, true identity, express their beliefs and future trajectory. Only then they can attract true followers and establish the trust that customers develop with some brands.

Simon also gives a very apt analogy to this situation. He states that the behavior of the companies seeking the advice and guidance of their customers is equivalent to us going to our friends and asking, “How would you like me to dress, so that you to like me better; how do you want me to speak, so that you like me more?” The true friends would reply - just be yourself, I like you the way you are, this is why I am your friend.

Therefore, the message to the companies (or any business) is this: be authentic, declare your beliefs and mission, earn the trust of the people, create a trend, inspire the community, and only then you will have the followers and the success you are after.

Going back to this blog’s identity, I believe that my main mission is benevolence.

be·nev·o·lence:

1. An inclination to perform kind, charitable acts.

2.

a. A kindly act.

b. A gift given out of generosity.

I hope that I will continue to share as much wisdom and useful knowledge as possible. Today, this is an act of kindness.


PS 
Another great "branding" talk is this by Sasha Strauss, Think Branding, with Google - Conference Keynote - "Branding in the New Normal"