news-record.com

By cutting 65 middle management and administrative positions, UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady is protecting the classroom. That's her top priority.

On whose jobs the ax landed should come as no surprise. Following news reports that administrative ranks across the UNC system had grown by 28 percent over the last five years, an embarrassed UNC system President Erskine Bowles ordered a 900-job reduction. State legislators, who had called for deep systemwide budget cuts, echoed his sentiments.

As in the private sector, jobs of academic middle managers are at risk during a recession. At UNCG, 43 percent of the cuts involved those positions. Others were redefined and some got additional responsibilities.

However, care must be taken not to cut the bone along with the fat. Systemwide growth fueled by a $3.1 billion bond issue in 2000, federal research grants and new technology justified adding some of those titled jobs.

At the same time, a recent News & Observer of Raleigh investigation showed that campus promotions also can be a ploy to raise salaries and jump-start stalled careers. Too often duties were ill-defined.

Brady and the system's other chancellors now must reevaluate and determine which jobs are vital to keeping their campuses running efficiently. As it should be, her goal is to have an administrative structure that both supports academic quality and is responsive to student needs.

She points out that UNCG already is moving in that direction. Over the last three years, it has increased the ratio of students per staff while most UNC campuses experienced a decrease.

As enrollments continue to climb, scarce resources must be allocated where needed most -- the classroom.

Careful pruning in the right places eventually will make for a leaner university better able to serve its students and the community.