The American Academy is one that is relatively new but has many of its inherited characteristics from the English universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Fundamentally, these institutions are supposed to safeguard, promote, and further knowledge and education. They are the hallmark of human progress and knowledge. However, a brief look into the interior workings of modern day academia reveals a system that is clogged up with bureaucracy, financial strain, and administrative bloat. Though this is not the sole measure of health for a university, many universities in the United States are suffering from mismanagement at the highest levels. Some of these things may be beyond the control of the faculty, yet it is clear that academics have willfully turned a blind eye in some instances to protect their own positions.
Academia is quickly facing an economics problem. Too much demand for too little a supply of academic positions. Here are some glaring facts:
- Depending on university and field, an average PhD student can expect a salary of $27,170 per year.
- The average salary of a university dean is $93,529 per year with the high end topping off around $191,000 per year.
- The average salary of a university provost is $149,318 per year with the high end around $216,000 per year.
- The average salary of a university president is $277,234 per year with the high end around $490,000 per year.
- The number of PhD students are steadily rising with about 55,000 doctorate degrees awarded in 2016 .
As universities continue to increase tuition year over year, the pay of most graduate students has remained stagnant. Much of the money is used in large building projects and much is used to pay deans and associate deans. Take for instance UCLA which has around 20 deans and a large number of associate deans. The number varies by department and school, but the case still remains that those types of positions do not expand much and the ratio of PhD student to dean is rapidly expanding.
Universities have only exacerbated the problem with the fact that the main positions that have been added are usually some sort of dean of diversity and/or inclusion to the departments. These positions are largely symbolic and when they do affect policy, generally focus on increasing overall undergraduate and graduate student admissions. The goal of these initiatives largely focus on admitting underprivileged students who do not perform as well academically in an attempt to achieve a more diverse university setting.
The results of adding these diversity deans and their policies are two-fold. First, the university becomes even more top heaving with having to sustain sometimes an additional 5-10 associate deans. Though sometimes these deans are already faculty members, any dean position means a salary increase as well. Secondly, a serious dilution in the degrees at both the undergraduate Bachelor level and graduate Masters and Doctorate level. These degrees become less meaningful with the addition of more students, the competition becomes stiffer for already scarce academic positions, and the pay remains stagnant as the universities have to divide pay across even more individuals.
Instead of focusing on the quality of education being provided, most universities are content with charging large prices for a diluted education. Forcing diversity initiatives on their campus has also created a climate that is largely intolerant of views which go contrary to the diversity initiatives. These initiatives have additionally created a dilution of the value of the degree when awarded due to the fact that more people, who are objectively less qualified, now have these degrees as well.
This doesn’t even take into account all the other diversity and cultural and student life offices which have faculty who are not teaching faculty. Though some of these positions may be necessary, many of these offices have been created specifically to cater to the diversity initiatives being pushed across America. It has become a racket of sorts with the universities awarding degrees for fields of study that are essentially worthless and then hiring these “PhDs” to become diversity faculty while directing funding away from the normal teaching and research faculty positions.
Now it is important to note that I myself am a PhD candidate at a large research university. I think diversity is important but specifically diversity of thought. Diversity on the basis of race is borderline racist and I think that many universities are doing more harm than good when focusing on race-based diversity. My own university spends an inordinate amount of time trying to balance inter-sectional diversity agendas which detract from meaningful scientific research.
It is unclear how long this can continue and if a PhD or any degree will be worth anything in the future. Having done a PhD program myself, American Academia, once the bright lamp post for free-thinking, has descended into an intolerant, bureaucratic system. While doing so, it continually touts that it is a bastion for tolerance, knowledge, and progress. How long can it ignore the worms that are eating it from the inside out?