The Fat Greek Ohio State University

Administrative bloat at Ohio State, where the ratio of full-time non-instructional staff to full-time faculty is more than 6-to-1

By mark perry

The president of Ohio State University, E. Gordon Gee, has come under fire recently for spending $7.7 million to travel, entertain and maintain his 9,600 square foot mansion in recent years, in addition to collecting $8.6 million in salary and benefits since 2007.  Critics point to his excessive spending on $673,000 for artwork, Persian rugs, European antiques, and a $532 show curtain for his mansion.

But perhaps that criticism is based on a basic misunderstanding of President Gee’s job.  Most people probably assume that E. Gordon Gee is a college president in charge of an educational system staffed by full-time faculty who deliver educational services to students at Ohio State. But that’s not really accurate.  He’s actually in charge of a massive, non-instructional higher educational bureaucracy at Ohio State, where the ratio of full-time non-instructional staff to full-time faculty is more than 6-to-1 (see chart above, data here). He’s got more than 1,700 administrators who report to him, and an army of more 11,000 full-time “other professionals” who report to the 1,700 administrators.  With full-time enrollment of 48,000 students and 21,436 non-instructional full-time staff (once you include clerical and secretarial positions, skilled crafts, technical/professional, and service/maintenance) that’s a ratio of almost one full-time non-teaching employee for every two Ohio State students.

And to keep that educational bureaucracy functioning requires massive “resource-generation,” fundraising and taxpayer support to pay more than $1 billion every year in administrative salaries at Ohio State.  So maybe we should give President Gee some slack, and realize that he probably deserves millions of dollars in compensation, entertainment  and travel support because he’s got a big job – he’s got a top-heavy, multi-billion dollar educational bureaucracy to maintain and support.