More Corporate U
Solving parking problems
The University of Utah is in the news again: https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2025/09/03/worst-possible-solution-university/
The gist of this Salt Lake Tribune story is that University of Utah administrators, without consulting adequately with the relevant stakeholders, i.e. students, are introducing new class times, outside the popular 8am to 2pm bracket, to solve a parking problem. Students are furious. Commuter students are particularly upset as they have evening jobs and so regular day time class slots are best for them. The way in which university administrations roll out new plans is often simply via an announcement; no checking in with stake holders, talking to experts or any of that noise. Some plans that impact 1000s of people, usually negatively, are rolled out after surveys have been circulated. The University of Utah hired a consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, to “help” design and implement its future of the university plan. (Salt Lake Tribune reporting revealed that $6 million went to McKinsey & Company.) As a result, faculty and staff were inundated with condescending and platitudinous surveys and focus groups. Most of these surveys and focus groups manicured input vigorously, allowing for no comments about what faculty and staff actually thought about the plans and their implementation. After all, what kind of useful input would life time employees of a higher education institution have on future plans for that institution? However, they slipped up on one survey and included an open comments box. Here’s what I put in that box:
“This survey instrument rather trivializes the problem at hand.
As I note above, societal impact can mean many things, some of which we should value and lead in as an institution, others we should not trade in at all.
The University culture currently is one of top-down governance. Not only is shared governance weakened, it is being directly undermined by the administration. Faculty role in University governance is at one of its lowest points in the last 30 years.
Respect for faculty, staff and students is more or less non-existent currently. This is exemplified by asking for our input into the University's future mission via this flimsy survey. Our University culture is marked by lack of transparency. Many decisions are ad hoc, conducted behind closed doors and have no basis in input from key stakeholders, i.e. faculty, staff and students. This University has long ignored the achievements of its faculty, leading to excellent people leaving here for other institutions. Excellent academics retire without their achievements being celebrated. For example, two of our foremost geneticists are teaching their last class this semester in obscurity, without any recognition from the University.
The University is rife with compensation inequity. For example, faculty in the Business School are paid 3 to 5 times more than their rank peers in Social Science and Humanities. (This is not the case at other institutions, Cornell for example.)
Pay compression is just deemed part of life and no systematic attempt has ever been made to address it in 30 years. No wonder people leave simply for better pay. Recruitment is also undermined by these factors. It is all well and good paying a decent starting salary but the lack of any clear raise structure means that people soon fall behind rising living costs and have no option but to seek work elsewhere.
Recruitment of senior faculty, full professors, is undermined by our nebulous and club like Distinguished Professor process. Distinguished Professorships here are not awarded based on academic excellence, excellent teaching and service contributions to the University, instead they are decided upon by a small club. At peer institutions, Distinguished Professorships are awarded on the basis of academic achievement etc. as judged by in-field peers and also supported by increases in salary.
We are not a leader in this State on diversity and inclusion. When one of our football coach's racist behavior was uncovered, a simple signal could have been sent out to the world by letting him go. Indicating that we won't tolerate that here. But we keep that person on the payroll at an annual salary that is the size of the total annual budget for entire departments in Social Science or Humanities. Falling all over yourselves to get rid of our Women’s Resource Center, Black Cultural Center and other valuable resources to please the Legislature cemented the case for your absolute lack of commitment to diversity and inclusion.
In sum, there is a lot of work to do. Turning things around could be begun by small gestures: respect faculty, celebrate their achievements, honor them upon retirement. Improve the living conditions of graduate students by increasing their stipends so they can afford to live here. Celebrate students' academic achievements, rather than focusing on their potential economic impact. In short, aspire to be and act like a top university.
Final note: the University's little money-making schemes cheapen us. Please stop charging us high rates for parking and then disallowing us from using our parking places while you make a few bucks off them during games or other events.”
McKinsey & Co’s survey reading bots missed all of this, or I assume they did, as I was not dragged into the principal’s office for a dressing down about not sharing the vision and such like. The broader point is that the administration at this university doesn’t care. They don’t give a damn about what students think about having their class schedules changed or what faculty think about how the university is run. We are in the world of rolling out plans that suit incredibly highly paid administrators. The University of Utah administration will keep spending State tax money and tuition revenue on their vast salaries, consulting firms and marketing campaigns that tell the world how wonderful everything is on the good ship U of U. Meanwhile, that same administration implements State imposed budget cuts by not giving pay raises to staff and faculty and failing to replace retired or resigned faculty. Oh, and if the new class schedules conflict with important social events on campus, tough. Students won’t be allowed to use the parking spaces they paid for on those occasions, because donors, alums and special guests will paying to use those spaces.