MORE REMFs. SCSU Scholars note the correlation of rising tuitions and administrative bloat at their university, and draw connections to John Dunlap's reporting on the proliferation of "administrative support professionals." (I prefer the appellation acronymned in the header, and noted the phenomenon in Illinois some time ago.) Unfortunately, all those new administrators seem devoted to repeating the same mistakes they made years ago, according to this Heather MacDonald essay. Critical Mass, who provided the link to the MacDonald essay, notes, "The central paradox of diversity, indeed, is that its success is predicated on its continual failure: rampant racism and sexism on campus are the administrative rationales for throwing money at diversity; continued--or even worsened--racism and sexism are the administrative rationales for throwing even more money at diversity over time. In other words, campus diversity initiatives entrench themselves deeper all the time by effectively announcing that they are not successfully addressing the "problem" they were created to resolve. Behind the lines, one can detect diversity's dirty little secret: that it is itself in the business of exacerbating the tensions it presumes to alleviate, and that it teaches the intolerance it claims to decry." Meanwhile, the academic departments have to deal with 1985-level enrollments and 1995-level staffing. Forgive me if I seem particularly grumpy, but I objected to a number of developments circa 1995 aimed at encouraging retention and fostering diversity on campus. My reasoning: it was an error to think about further down-sizing of the University or further easing of academic standards with the middle schools bursting at the seams. The administration thought otherwise. By their fruits shall ye know them.