Even as financial pressures on universities grow, experts said, the growth in administrators is unlikely to reverse in the short term.
The Trump administration aims to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; boost the tax on college endowments; and reevaluate federal funding for universities — all of which could prompt schools to hire a cadre of attorneys and other professionals to stay in compliance, or fight back. An anticipated wave of higher ed mergers will need compliance managers, consultants, and other experts to shepherd deals and manage integration.
But Paul Weinstein Jr., a Johns Hopkins professor in Maryland and senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, said the boom cannot last forever. Both students and professors are catching onto the uptick in administrators, critiquing the floors and floors of employees who scarcely interact with the rest of the institution, he said.
“We’re coming to this reckoning moment,” Weinstein added. “Universities going to be faced with this reality that they have more administrators than they can support or justify, and it’s not going to be pleasant.”
