Administrator growth outpaces teachers at UNC

This decade has been good for associate vice chancellors at UNC-Chapel Hill. Their numbers have nearly doubled, from 10 to 19, and the money paid to them has more than tripled, to a total of nearly $4million a year.

The university now admits that some of these people were in jobs that were not vital. They represent the rapid management growth in the 16-campus UNC system that has added tens of millions of dollars to annual payrolls.

Now, with a tough economy and sinking tax revenues, UNC officials and state lawmakers say these jobs need cutting first.

A (Raleigh) News & Observer analysis of university payroll data and similar work done by the UNC General Administration shows that many of the 16 campuses have expanded their bureaucracies at a big expense. Administrators are among the best paid people on the campuses, typically earning $100,000 or more.

Systemwide over the past five years, the administrative ranks have grown by 28 percent, from 1,269 administrative jobs to 1,623 last year, UNC-system data show. That's faster than the growth of faculty and other teaching positions -- 24 percent -- and faster than student enrollment at 14 percent.

"That's troubling," said UNC-CH 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 number of people with provost or chancellor in their titles alone has increased by 34 percent the past five years, from 312 in 2004 to 418 last year. The cost was $61.1 million, up $25 million from five years before.

UNC President Erskine Bowles, other UNC-system chancellors and state lawmakers say they are looking to prune the disproportionate administrative growth. The state budget, in seeking a $73 million cut from the universities this year, listed cutting "senior and middle management positions" as its top priority.

"If you are looking at the cuts we are making, they are heavily, heavily, weighted on the administrative side," said Bowles, who oversees the UNC system.

He and other UNC officials say it's not necessarily a case of bureaucracy run amok. Voters passed a $3.1 billion bond referendum in 2000 that started a building boom, adding more facilities that need to be managed. Research programs, which are mostly funded by federal grants, have also grown dramatically at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University, creating the need for more people to manage the research and the money.

But there's also evidence that positions were created with little eye toward the bottom line.

A recent UNC-CH study found that administrative costs since 2004 have swelled at a pace of 6.6 percent a year; in that same span, academic spending rose 4.8 percent a year. The university is 10 layers deep in some areas, which means there are nine supervisors above some workers.

Much of the growth has been in managing computers and other information technology. As the university has grown, departments and divisions have hired their own IT staff members, creating a structure that is far too decentralized, according to a recently-released efficiency report by a private consultant hired to look at UNC-CH's spending.

"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."

Thorp also chopped out a department for public service and engagement formed by his predecessor, James Moeser, and is trimming human resources staff to squeeze more bureaucracy out of the UNC-CH administration. He predicts that these and other cuts will allow the university to protect teaching and make more classes available to students in the upcoming school year.

N.C. State University's new chancellor, James Woodward, said he is going to go to school on the UNC-CH report to look for ways to reduce bureaucracy. He said NCSU already has roughly 100 communications staffers; different colleges or departments have added their own publicists over the years. He wants to centralize communications and whittle the numbers.

Budget-busting growth

Personnel records show significant growth in third- and fourth-tier management jobs.

NCSU, for example, had four assistant vice provosts in 2004; last year it had 10. Similarly, the university had five assistant vice chancellors in 2004; last year it had eight.

At UNC-CH, in addition to the associate vice chancellor growth, the number of assistant vice chancellors grew from zero to 14 in that period. (In the university pecking order, an associate outranks an assistant.)

None of these administrators made less than $75,000 last year, except for a part-time assistant vice chancellor at NCSU who worked half-weeks for $69,000.

The biggest percentage growth in positions with provost or chancellor in their titles took place at UNC-Greensboro, where it nearly doubled to 50. UNCG Provost David Perrin downplayed the growth. He said nearly all the additional positions involved promotions, so the overall management growth was not as significant.

Still, UNC records show that the university's administrative jobs grew by 71 percent in five years. Perrin said the university has needed more administrators to respond to an enrollment boom, more grant-funded research and a new capital campaign.

Administrative growth led to much better pay for some employees, though university leaders say added responsibilities are part of the deal.

At UNCG, an information technology director, Gloria E. Thornton, has climbed the administrative ladder since 2005. She is now an associate vice chancellor in IT who earned $159,724 last year; that's $64,774 more than she earned prior to entering upper administration, according to payroll records. Donna Heath, a programmer, saw her pay more than double, to $128,000, when she became an interim associate vice chancellor in information technology services in 2005.

In the last several years, UNCG's information technology department went through a restructuring as it added to its managerial ranks, said Linda Brady, UNCG's chancellor.

"In order to keep people and be competitive, people need to have titles that reflect their job responsibilities," Brady said. "You've got to pay at that level to get good people."

UNCG's current budget-cutting plan largely targets workers in middle management, Brady said, in an attempt to protect both front-line workers and top administrative leaders.

Titles under review

Four years ago, Vicki Pennington was an administrative manager within the provost's office at NCSU. She made $65,866. But when she was promoted to assistant vice provost, her salary shot up more than 20 percent to $80,000. She now makes $105,725 a year. NCSU officials say she has taken on responsibilities of two other assistant vice provost positions that were abolished.

NCSU Chancellor Woodward said he could not speak about individual cases, having been appointed two months ago. (His predecessor, James Oblinger, stepped down in the wake of a hiring and pay controversy involving former first lady Mary Easley.) But Woodward said he is reviewing newly created middle or upper management positions to see whether they had received additional or more critical duties to justify the jobs and their higher salary.

"The bottom line is these are legitimate public concerns, and we need to have a heck of a lot more friction in the system that prevents us from just adding a lot of administrative positions or bumping up the salaries or reclassifying positions," Woodward said. "One of the good things with these budget cuts is we're going to eliminate some of these positions."

Faculty have noticed the administrative growth. At NCSU, professors produced a report showing that from 2002 to 2007, the number of full-time tenure track faculty decreased slightly, while full-time administrators grew at a fast clip. It reflects a trend at universities across the nation.

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."

Unlike much of state government, the universities generally have the authority to set raises for faculty and administrators. The UNC system's Board of Governors has also granted some of the universities, including NCSU and UNC-CH, the flexibility to make many administrative changes.

Thorp said one goal in attacking administrative growth is to make sure that authority isn't lost.

"One of the main reasons why I'm doing all this is to demonstrate that we have the gumption and fortitude to do that on our own," he said. "And I think if you look at some of the moves I've made, these are pretty strong."

One such example is those associate vice chancellors. Thorp said he has already cut them from 19 to 15.