RALEIGH (AP) — The number of administrators at University of North Carolina system schools has grown 28 percent in the past five years, faster than the growth of teaching positions or student enrollment, a newspaper analysis shows.

Advertisement

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Monday that its analysis showed the 16-campus system had 1,623 administrative jobs last year, up from 1,269 five years ago. The 28 percent growth rate is higher than the 24 percent growth in faculty and other teaching positions and the 14 percent growth in student enrollment.

“That’s troubling,” said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, who took over the campus in July 2008 and soon after started cutting administrative jobs. “We’re here to educate the citizens of North Carolina and produce scholars that help North Carolina and the rest of the world with their problems, and if we are spending money on the administration, we are not spending money on that.”

The News & Observer said it based its analysis on university payroll data and similar work done by the UNC General Administration.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles is among those who say they’re looking to cut positions. The state budget seeks to cut $73 million from UNC schools, recommending the elimination of senior and middle management positions.

“If you are looking at the cuts we are making, they are heavily, heavily weighted on the administrative side,” Bowles said.

One reason for the number of administrative hires is a $3.1 billion bond referendum that voters passed in 2000, allowing more construction, said Bowles and other UNC officials. That resulted in more facilities that needed management.

Research programs also have grown at UNC-CH and N.C. State University, meaning more people are needed to manage the research and the federal funds that typically accompany such programs.

A recent UNC-CH study found that since 2004, administrative costs have risen 6.6 percent a year, while academic spending increased 4.8 percent a year. Much of the growth has been in managing computers and other information technology.

“It’s not a product of universities specifically; it’s a product of an organization our size,” Thorp said. “As we grow, functions become more decentralized. Everyone wants their own IT staff or their own development people. That’s one trend we want to turn around.”

N.C. State University Chancellor James Woodward said he will study the UNC-CH report to find ways to reduce bureaucracy at his school. For example, he said NCSU has about 100 communications staffers because different colleges or departments have added their own publicists. He wants to reduce the number of such workers by centralizing communications.

NCSU professors produced a report showing that from 2002 to 2007, the number of full-time tenure track faculty decreased slightly, while the number full-time administrators grew.

One of the authors, chemistry professor and former dean Jerry L. Whitten, said the systemwide numbers compiled by The N&O and UNC were astounding.

“The tragedy is that the legislature appropriates money for teaching, and that’s where the public thinks it’s going,” he said. “But in truth, huge amounts are obviously going for things that are completely unrelated.”