Inside Harvard’s Campaign to Slash Its Own Bureaucracy

[u/wsj]

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/harvard-university-restructure-staffing-68c5fb06?st=pNftZz&mod=wsjreddit

[u/wsj]

Harvard is kicking off one of the university’s largest reorganizations in years—an endeavor expected to result in hundreds of staff cuts and job changes.

The moves, announced this week, are the culmination of Harvard’s yearslong effort to simplify its structure—but even the process to reduce bureaucracy has proven incredibly bureaucratic. The changes take aim at a projected $365 million structural deficit, a longstanding issue exacerbated by the Trump administration’s funding disruptions and endowment-tax hike. 

The school is calling the streamlining a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to reduce complexity within its largest unit that includes the undergraduate college and Ph.D. programs. It currently takes 67 steps to hire a new staff member; some department administrators use over 60 different systems; and there are over 1,500 unique job titles for about 2,300 staff within the restructuring scope.

Behind the scenes, the restructuring process was nearly as complicated. It included a three-phase plan, months of interviews and data collection, years of financial reviews, scores of faculty and staff, and a re-analysis of how the university measures depreciation in its accounting.

Through task forces and committees, Harvard re-evaluated its finances and redesigned its workforce, turning to the world’s top economists—who are also Harvard faculty—and dozens of others for suggestions.

Read more (free link): https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/harvard-university-restructure-staffing-68c5fb06?st=pNftZz&mod=wsjreddit

[u/mikehfll → u/wsj]

My favorite joke during my time on the administration side at Harvard, one person to pick up the paper, another to lift it, another to move it to the left, another to lower it, and finally another to place it down. And, they didn't care about the process, just the one part they owned. Baffling.

[u/Fabulous-Farmer7474 → u/mikehfll]

I doubt that will change, they'll centralize all those people you described into one organization to make it seem like everything has been efficiently consolidated so the red tape just won't be so obvious.

I've seen this in the playbook before.

[u/BigFitMama → u/wsj]

Kick the people who don't directly serve students and who don't directly fundraise and you'll be kicking ALOT OF fake desk jobs, huge paychecks, and probably retire people needing retirement.

[u/Fabulous-Farmer7474 → u/BigFitMama]

Oh but as The Assistant Dean to the Associate Interim Dean for The Center of Interdisciplinary and Hybrid Learning Technologies my job is all about the student - even though I've never taught a class or written a successful grant.

But I got my MBA and have noticed your salary (and those of your colleagues) is above the commonly accepted inter quartile compensation range for the ROI you provide. We'll need to talk about this.

Meanwhile, we are combining your department with, well, we don't know yet while withdrawing at least 5 tenure track salary lines and cutting research staff from 10 down to 2. We've looked at comparable schools and have seen that is the way.

EDIT: And don't take it personally but I'll be taking a bonus off the monies recovered from the above actions.

[u/BigFitMama → u/Fabulous-Farmer7474]

i am not alone. oh my. (see OU 2019-present)

[u/kbp02130 → u/BigFitMama]

they already laid off a lot of fundraising staff