University of Virginia Library

Administrative Overhaul

The recent shuffling of the administrative
structure of the University is open to several
explanations. It could be that some wealthy
benefactor, seeking to perform some lasting
service to the University, endowed a nameplate
fund. The Administration, anxious to
make use of the money, might therefore have
created the new positions, thereby necessitating
the purchase of new nameplates for all of
the new Vice Presidents. Or perhaps the
problem was a lack of funds; President
Shannon might have, in an effort to appease
his impoverished assistants, made them Vice
Presidents in lieu of giving them a raise.

But we, in our benignity, assume that there
is a more rational explanation for the
reshuffling of the administrative deck. No one
has made a definite statement of the changes
that the new hierarchy is meant to expedite;
this is probably because the President is wary
of the potential obstacles, financial and
otherwise, that lay in the path of his
contemplated administrative overhaul.

Administrative work seems to grow geometrically
with the size of an organization.
When, in the next ten years, the University
nearly doubles its enrollment, administrative
needs may triple or quadruple. The administrative
sector of the University will have to
grow to meet those needs.

It has not always done so in the past; Dean
Runk, for example, simply assumed all of the
work that fell into his office when he was
Dean of the University; he might add an
assistant here and there, but there was never a
comprehensive structure within which his
office might grow in a rational and orderly
manner. Other administrative offices suffered
in an analogous manner. The University was
not getting, and is still not getting, the
administrative services it needs.

The new hierarchy is like a fleshless
skeleton. As the people and money become
available, we may expect that the skeleton
will take on flesh and still function as an
effective entity. The Vice President for
Student Affairs might, for example, effectively
oversee two dozen different offices, each
with several members on its professional staff.
The effect might be to generate a coherent
and competent battery of student services.

If this proves to be the case, the University
will have been strengthened. But the plan will
prove counter-productive if the administration
is not composed of the high calibre of people
necessary to prevent it from degenerating into
a faceless, marshmallowy bureaucracy.