(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
From the Indy Star:
Daniels cited a national study released a few weeks ago by the Goldwater Institute in Arizona. It found the number of full-time administrators for every 100 students at 189 top U.S. universities had increased by 39 percent from 1993 to 2007.
The study blamed the administrative bloat on subsidies from federal and state governments and suggested that reducing subsidies would force schools to operate more efficiently.
“The role of trustee has never been so critical as it is today,” Daniels said. “But I don’t want to see you at the Statehouse asking for more money.
“Please stay back at the school and find ways to be more efficient with those dollars.”
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
I think the study authors are wrong, or at least incomplete in the assignment of blame, about the cause of administrative bloat.
While having gobs of money certainly will stimulate administrative bloat I believe it’s just a feature of any hierarchical organization. The big-wigs are inevitably going to be fawned over and made much of, imperialized, and will see to their own comfort and convenience with an every-increasing coterie of hangers-on and sycophants. Every big cheese will, sooner or later, find it necessary to have a couple of vice cheeses-in-waiting, an administrative cheese or two and several support cheeses.
If the organization’s not to find itself in the business of funding the lifestyles the rich and administrative it has to go through a periodic purging. The farther apart the administration of administrative purgatives the more the vitality of the organization is sapped. Unfortunately the public education system is almost uniquely suited to the fostering of administrative bloat since organizational extinction is inconceivable, and pretty near impossible, and funding’s completely unrelated to performance.
I think the little statuette of Carrie Fisher in slavegirl-trim strangling Jabba the Hut is appropriate in that were the scene played out in real life Princess Leia wouldn’t stand a chance and would probably end up disappearing down Jabba’s gullet. Governor Daniels might want to keep that in mind before trying to throttle edu-Jabba.
Leia’s midi-chlorian count was strong enough to take Jabba down, and the force is with Governor Daniels as well.
Oookaaaay…..
Mentioning “midi-chlorians” is a major geek penalty. Fifteen yards and first down to Allen.
😦