The outrage over Monifa McKnight’s appointment to a cush job at the University of Maryland centers on qualification: does she really deserve that job after her horrific behavior at MCPS? There’s another aspect of her appointment that needs to be discussed: necessity.
Study after study has identified the causes of an American university’s outrageous tuition. One of those studies from 2020 reiterated the four contributory factors that we’ve heard mention for quite some time: overbuilding of campus amenities, high-wage labor, subsidized student loans, and administrative bloat.
Two cases of administrative bloat at the University of Maryland surfaced during the past month. The first was the university’s announcement that Monifa McKnight, the disgraced MCPS superintendent, was hired as the inaugural Dean’s Fellow and Superintendent in Residence. As McKnight’s new boss Dean Kimberly Griffin put it—
We are delighted to have Dr. McKnight join our college. She is a seasoned educator and leader whose extensive experience and commitment to education equity will prove valuable as we move fearlessly forward to transform education for good.
Aside from her personal stylist, it’s extremely difficult to associate anything “good” with Monifa McKnight. For every MoCo resident who thinks McKnight promoted educational equity or anything else positive throughout MCPS, I’ll find you 100 who think otherwise. That’s not the point, however. The point is what on earth does UMD need a dean fellow or superintendent in residence? What exactly will McKnight be doing? If there truly is a need for a new position, does that mean any one of the the existing 74 administrative staff can be removed from the head count? A significant source of America’s college tuition costs is administrative bloat, and McKnight, without any convincing argument to the contrary, contributes to that bloat.
(It’s not like McKnight needs the job or the money. She got her undeserved $1.3 million severance pay. Put that in a 5% CD, and you’re making $66,300. That’s plenty to live on in some parts of the US.)
Let’s move on to Dean Kimberly Griffin. In the corporate world, every employee—from the lowly receiving clerk to the megalomaniacal CEO—commits to annual goals and objectives. During an annual review, each employee’s superior determines performance against those goals and objectives. An employee who didn’t achieve those goals needs to explain why or find another job. What are Ms. Griffin’s annual objectives, and do they do anything for the students and taxpayers who are funding her salary? She started her term in 2022; how successful has she been in achieving her objectives.
The site HowCollegesSpendMoney.com reveals that UMD College Park allocates about 20% of its revenues to administrative (non-instructional) expenses, and that includes offices of the dean. Students (and their parents), think about that. Fully 20% of the tuition you pay, fully 20% of the student loans you take out, go toward “administration” in the form of Monifa McKnight’s and Kimberly Griffin’s salaries. What have they done for you that you are willing to finance?
