Chart: Instruction vs. Admin Costs at the University of Minnesota

What exactly “is” an administrative cost? Is student advising by professional staff administrative, or is it instructional? One suspects that students will regard it as rather important (and paying faculty to do it instead of hiring an “administrator” is a waste of money since faculty salaries will be much higher on a “per hour spent on advising” basis ). So, moving replacing one faculty member in a college with two advisors, each of whom costs half as much (and will likely be far more expert in their advising, given that it’s their full-time job), would “shift” costs from instruction to admin, but would free up time from dozens of remaining faculty members, thereby allowing them to spend far more time on instruction (and research, etc.) Juicy for juicy’s sake is a waste of time — one hopes that the exercise has more point than the usual “administration is evil” mantra