Bowles directs schools to cut

A strongly worded letter from UNC-system President Erskine Bowles chastising university chancellors for their administrative expansion was made public Friday.

The letter was sent in reaction to an article printed in The (Raleigh) News & Observer on Aug. 17 that reported extensive administrative expansion at many UNC-system schools in the last few years.

“The coverage in today’s News & Observer on administrative growth within the University is an absolute embarrassment — and we brought it all on ourselves,” Bowles stated in the letter.

In the article Bowles alludes to, the N&O reported that across the UNC system, the number of administrative positions grew 28 percent in the last five years — a faster rate than the growth of faculty and teaching positions, 24 percent, and student enrollment, 14 percent.

In the letter, Bowles chastised the chancellors for ignoring his repeated calls for more efficient operations and administrative cuts.

“We have discussed the need to pare administrative costs REPEATEDLY at our chancellors’ meetings, and we have made it crystal clear that any further delay in reducing senior and middle management positions would jeopardize our credibility and standing with the General Assembly and the taxpayers of North Carolina,” he stated in the letter (emphasis his).

Efficiency consultants from Bain & Company, hired by UNC-Chapel Hill last academic year, released a report this summer that showed UNC-CH is administration-heavy and its operations are decentralized.

Bowles is meeting with the UNC-system chancellors today in a private meeting.


Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.