When administrative culture seeps into faculty mindset

“It's become a new annual tradition: Whenever a faculty member retires, the rest of us circle the wagons to begin the delicate process of justifying why our department still needs the position,” write Andrew Carlson and Matthew Filner for Chronicle Vitae. The authors argue that a new form of “administrative creep” is causing faculty to increasingly take on an administrative mindset in which “creeping administrative work sends the message that our academic institutions serve a narrow purpose—conveying degrees as quickly as possible—rather than the deeper, more important goal of educating citizens.” The authors go on to highlight a number of different ways that faculty members are influenced by administrative approaches to higher education. Chronicle Vitae