The Mirriam-Webster Word of the Day is officious, which means “volunteering one’s services where they are neither asked nor needed” or “meddlesome.” Mirriam-Webster provides a second definition, “informal, unofficial,” but I have never in my life heard or read the word used in that sense.

Mirriam-Webster also gives this as an etymology: “Don’t mistake officious for a rare synonym of official. Both words stem from the Latin noun officium (meaning ‘service’ or ‘office’), but they have very different meanings. When the suffix –osus (“full of”) was added to officium, Latin officiosus came into being, meaning ‘eager to serve, help, or perform a duty.’ When this adjective was borrowed into English as officious in the 15th century it described dutiful people and their actions. That use shifted a bit semantically to describe those eager to help or serve. By the late 16th century, however, officious was beginning to develop a negative sense describing a person who offers unwanted help. This pejorative sense has driven out the original ‘dutiful’ and ‘eager to help’ senses to become the predominant meaning of the word in modern English.” The website www.etymonline.com says that the pejorative meaning “had emerged by 1600 (in officiously).” Etymonline.com also says that “An officious lie (1570s) is one told to do good to another person (from Latin mendacium officiosum or French mensonge officieux).”

One of the big concerns in our country these days is student debt. We are hearing how students are taking on so much debt that it is making it hard for even those who graduate to start an adult life, one that includes marrying, having children, and (most significantly) buying a house. We even have begun to hear pundits arguing that going to college may not be the best option for young people today. And, to some extent, these pundits may be right, though I would say that it is impossible to know, definitively, which students should and which should not go to college. I have a brother who dropped out of high school during his second tour of the tenth grade, but today he has a Master’s degree, having passed the GED and then gone to college.

One of the reasons that student debt has become such an important issue, important enough to be included in the presidential debates of the Democratic Party, is that college has been getting more and more expensive. According to a recent study reported upon in U. S. News and World Report, tuition and fees have far outpaced inflation for other things (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-20/see-20-years-of-tuition-growth-at-national-universities). While inflation of goods between 1999 and 2019 was 54%, that for private colleges was 154%, and for public colleges, inflation for out-of-state fees was 181% and for in-state fees 221% (these numbers are for schools labeled “National Universities,” so regional colleges and universities may be a little bit different, but probably not that much.

Why has tuition increased so much? There are quite a few reasons. Faculty is not one of them. In fact, there has been a national trend to reduce the number of full-time faculty and replace them with adjunct (part-time) faculty. Some people blame the increases on the reduction of state government funds, but that would not explain the increase in the cost of private colleges. Some people blame the ever-fancier dormitories and amenities, and those people might have a point.

But many of us agree that at least one of the reasons the cost of college has increased at such a rate is the increase in the number of non-teaching “administrators,” most of them with no experience as faculty, and many with the Education Doctorate (Ed.D.), often in something called higher ed administration. A quick look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a government agency, will give you an idea (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/postsecondary-education-administrators.htm). The page says, “The median annual wage for postsecondary education administrators was $94,340 in May 2018.” A lot of faculty members make far less than that, and faculty salaries have been essentially flat (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Administrator-Hiring-Drove-28-/144519).  It also says, “Employment of postsecondary education administrators is projected to grow 7 percent from 2018 to 2028, faster than the average for all occupations.” Higher ed administration is a growth industry.

So, what do these administrators do? How do they improve the lives and educations of students. Well, the truth is, not much. The essence of a university is the classroom. That is where the meaningful things happen. Oh, yes, it is important for students to have a life outside the classroom, but they would also have a life outside the classroom if they were not in college. Yes, they need emotional support, but they also would need emotional support if they were not in college. All of those things provided by administrators are extraneous to the central mission of any and every college.

Of course, not all of those administrators are focused on students. The newer trend is to have administrators who “help” faculty. At my institution, we have “faculty development” and “faculty training.” Of course, what these Ed.D.s don’t realize is that faculty feel not need to be developed by them. “Professional development” to faculty is going to conferences, listening to papers and presentations, and engaging in conversation with peers. The kinds of things that “curriculum coordinators” and other administrators try to do are usually quite pointless.

These administrators are a problem because they cost students a lot of money. They are a problem because they think they are in charge of the faculty. But perhaps the most annoying thing about these administrators is how they think they are doing us such good. As C. S. Lewis once said, “Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.  It may be better to live under robber barons than under the omnipotent moral busybodies.  The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” These modern administrators are truly officious.

The image is from the MLA (https://mlaresearch.mla.hcommons.org/2016/11/17/trends-in-the-higher-education-workforce/).