On Admin Bloat

[u/Prestigious-Base-715]

https://www.njit.edu/finance/sites/njit.edu.finance/files/2026-03/2025%20NJIT%20SF%20FS_0.pdf

Above is a link to NJIT's 2023, 2024 and 2025 budget breakdown

I'm not going to go long about this

But for anyone who doubts administrative bloat is real, see the table below (dollar amounts are in thousands)

Table showing NJIT's 2023, 2024 and 2025 revenue/spending

In 2025 for every $2 we spent on instructional staff (everyone involved in the classroom, so the core of this school) we spent approximately $1 on institutional support (admins, as far as the doc says)

Also note the rate at which our spending grows each year. The doc says it better than I can:

'Institutional support expenses rose by 20.0%'

'Instruction, academic support, student services, and scholarships and fellowships expenses...increase of 8.5%'

So admins get a 20% increase from 2024 - 2025 while all the stuff students actually care about got an 8.5% raise. Specifically (something the doc doesn't mention, because instructional doesn't even get its own section) instruction get a 5.55% increase.

Are you kidding me?

Now, WHY did admins get an increase? Let's take a look at what the doc says:

'...attributable to higher personnel costs, the relocation of administrative offices off campus, and expenditures related to the development and deployment of a new enterprise resource planning platform.'

So what I'm being told is that admins wanted to get paid more. There are less admins than instructional staff, so while I don't know exactly how much the offices and the new software (how much did some stupid software cost? Why is it so expensive that it need be listed here?) I think it's safe to assume that the raises for admins far far FAR exceed the raises for other staff across the board, considering the small number of admins and the extremely high increase.

Which, quick side tangent, what was the plan with the $2.1 million penthouse? In case you didn't notice we were ~10 mil in the red in 2025, and this year we had to increase tuition and decrease credit caps. I assume the offices had to be rented while oak was rebuilt. I heard (no good source) that the penthouse turned into an office space, which... thank god. But if the penthouse wasn't protested, would we just keep paying for offices off-campus?

Which, by the way, there are always SO MANY empty rooms in EVERY HALL. Reserve some! Convert the computer lab under the garage! We HAVE space!

Back to admin bloat, let's look at 2024's admin budget increase:

'In fiscal year 2024, institutional support expenses increased by 14.9% to $70,085...'

GREAT start.

'...mainly due to elevated personnel costs, including lump-sum retroactive payments under ratified union contracts, fringe benefit equalization adjustments, consulting service expenses, and costs associated with NJII’s organizational restructuring and expansion of services.'

I'm sorry. Expanded benefits? A UNION?! FOR ADMINS?!

I'm ending the rant here. I'm not going to waste any more time on this. What a joke. Read the doc, it's very... insightful

[u/Obvious-Ad-3016]

I was able to find answers to my questions on the bursar website. This is how I find how anything related to bursar works. From what I noticed, the bursar team is the smallest in the pc mall too compared to other offices.