Weekly Update

A newsletter from The Hechinger Report

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In this week's edition: A decades-long increase in the number of employees on campuses who don’t actually teach — disparaged by critics as “administrative bloat” — is starting to reverse, new data suggests. The Hechinger Report wants to hear from students, employers and teachers on how high schools should evolve. Plus, Americans may have soured on college, but the data show they’re still going.

_{Credit: Lily Qian for The Hechinger Report}

Colleges are cutting administrative jobs — and critics say that’s a good thing

It was in the quiet of the summer when a new president at Louisiana State University said the school would lay off 25 administrators, including several who were high in the campus hierarchy, and shift the savings to faculty hiring and research.

“Transformational change,” the president, Wade Rousse, called it. He was “streamlining operations and finding efficiencies so the university can focus on” its faculty.

The move got limited attention outside Baton Rouge. But similar layoffs have been happening at universities and colleges nationwide in what may be a little-noticed tipping point in U.S. higher education.

A decades-long increase in the number of employees on campuses who don’t actually teach — disparaged by critics as “administrative bloat” — is starting to reverse, new data suggests.

The number of noninstructional employees at U.S. universities and colleges — the many people on campuses who don’t actually teach — fell last year more than it has at any time in at least the last decade, according to the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, or CUPA-HR.

And while the newly reported CUPA-HR figures cover only through the end of 2025, universities and colleges have continued to lay off noninstructional employees since then.

Another source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, now projects “limited employment growth” for postsecondary administrators, which it says will be slower than for other occupations.

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As careers, college and the workforce change rapidly, should high schools evolve? Help us find out

by Liz Willen, Editor-in-chief

Evan Perez could be the face of a new movement. He’s a first-year student attending Babson College on a full scholarship, majoring in business with a concentration in entrepreneurship. He won awards for building an AI-related business at his career-focused public high school and cares deeply about what and how students learn.

“We had an amazing model; we called it ‘real world learning,’ Perez said of his program at The Met High School’s campus in Providence, Rhode Island, part of a small network of learning communities in the state that combine academics with career exploration. Students can shadow business employees, intern in trades or take dual enrollment college classes. They attend internships twice a week and design many of their own projects.

“The Met taught me to advocate for myself, and really prepared me for a college where you are pitching yourself and your ideas and collaborating with others,” Perez said. But he also finds himself trying to overcome shortcomings in his academic preparation, in part because of the Met’s emphasis on projects, research and out-of-classroom experiences.

My recent conversation with Perez underscored one of the major questions facing U.S. high schools: Can they balance academics and career training while adequately readying their students for a world that’s being quickly reshaped by artificial intelligence and other forces?

That is exactly why The Hechinger Report is asking for your help.

We want to hear your thoughts about the role career readiness should play as part of a traditional high school day. Your answers will help us touch down in towns, cities and rural areas throughout the U.S. and find out what is working and what is not.

Let us know