When people stop suing the university every time their kid gets drunk and falls off a balcony, then that university can eliminate its department of risk management. When PETA stops protesting the bio and psych departments use of experimental lab animals, then that university can eliminate the administrators who oversee animal management.
Do you really think we are going back to the 1970’s when a university’s behavioral health department consisted of a psychiatrist and a nurse? (That was my college back in the 1970’s. Colleges now have an entire staff to provide referrals, counseling, med management, and coordination with the referring shrink back home). Colleges had one dietitian on staff- now it’s a department of nutritional management with an entire infrastructure of gluten-free/vegan/athlete/allergy management etc. The dining halls closed at 6:30 (athletes had one cafeteria they could use if practice kept them away from dinner) and the “snack bar” was a couple of vending machines and a dollar bill changer.
When we all stop demanding more and better and more targeted and more specialized in terms of student life and student services, then colleges can retreat to an earlier staffing model for non-instructional personnel. But until that happens…