This is even more ridiculous, when you consider IT should have been able to automate many of the traditional admin jobs.
My son got his PhD in a STEM field a year ago. He would have been an excellent teacher, but did not pursue an academic position because the pathway to a tenure track job in his field would have been a seemingly endless series of poorly paid postdocs. He had postdocs in his department in their 40s, still living on soft money. He was not willing to do that. Unfortunately there are many more PhDs than available jobs.
My H is a professor in a STEM field in a Midwest state university. The state budget for higher education is dismal. He has not gotten a raise in years and this year the state government took back money that had been previously allocated, so the university is scrambling to make cuts two months before the end of this fiscal year. The budget for the next fiscal year is even worse.
We would never have chosen to live here, but this is where his job offer took us. He works at least 80 hours/week. He has a 9 month appointment so even though he works all summer, it is unpaid. The funding rate for grants is so low that it amazes me that he continues to apply; but he really has no choice.
There is one huge perk, however. We have lived in wonderful places for sabbaticals. Our kids are true citizens of the world and both currently live overseas. My guess is that sabbaticals will disappear. Strangely enough few faculty members in my husband’s department take advantage of them (it is a lot of work to set up).
I’m still not clear exactly where OP was going with this question. Just curious as to where your tuition money is going? or is it a factor in deciding a school?
When one considers personnel costs at universities, it would be fruitful to look beyond professor salaries to administrator salaries. While faculty employment has been stagnant at many large universities, the ranks of administrators has grown. Nothing against administrators, of course, it is just important to consider the full labor cost when thinking about what factors may be influencing rising tuition rates.
@sylvan8798 It’s a curiousity.
FWIW, at the college where I work, I believe that personnel costs (administrators and staff as well as faculty) account for 2/3 or more of the college’s overall budget.