Yale Now Has As Many Administrators As Students

Yale University nearly doubled its number of administrators from 2003 to 2019 while only bringing in an additional 600 students, according to the Yale Daily News.

Yale now has an approximately equal number of students and administrators, the Daily News reported. Yale professors expressed concern about the impact of the school’s massive bureaucracy on teaching, students’ lives and university costs.

“I had remarked to President Salovey on his inauguration that I thought the best thing he could do for Yale would be to abolish one deanship or vice presidency every year of what I hoped would be a long tenure in that position,” Yale professor Leslie Brisman said, according to the Daily News. “Instead, it has seemed to me that he has created one upper-level administrative position a month.”

The desire to become important and powerful within one’s department drives the massive hiring of administrative staff, according to several professors who spoke to the Daily News. Professor John Gaddis explained that the role of academics as leaders is being diminished by the power of administrators over the school.

Some have blamed rising tuition costs across the country on the boom in administrative staff positions.

Administrative spending composed 36% of spending for American colleges in 1980-1981, while instructional spending made up 41%, Forbes reported. Thirty years later, those two categories were nearly even (24% and 29% respectively), according to Forbes.

Yale University did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.