2008 Woodie Awards
Short on staff
Mac behind peers in student to staff ratio
By: Brian Martucci
Issue date: 3/10/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
Macalester often touts a low student-to-faculty ratio in an effort to attract students seeking the experience of a small liberal arts college. The college, however, has traditionally lagged behind peer schools in its student-to-staff ratio, a statistic that receives less attention, but which students could feel on a daily basis.
According to Treasurer David Wheaton, Macalesterâ?TMs student-staff ratio, 5.5 to 1, is currently the highest among the top 40 most competitive liberal arts colleges in the U.S. Carleton, by comparison, has a ratio of 4 to 1.
Macalester currently employs about 330 staff members, a title that includes any employee who is not a member of the faculty. Carleton, with 1,900 students, employs 470 staff members.
But figuring out which departments suffer the most from thin staffing compared to peer schools is harder than it seems.
According to Wheaton, staff plans vary from college to college, making comparisons between different colleges difficult. To further complicate comparisons, many schools contract out some basic services like security, food, and accounting to outside agencies. Employees from private contractors are not considered college staff.
â?oeBecause of all this, itâ?TMs hard to pin down where shortages are most acute,â?? Wheaton said. â?oeHowever, the long term outlook suggests that we need to add positions in general.â??
Historically, Macalester has had a higher student-staff ratio than most of its comparison colleges.
â?oeBack in the â?TM70s and â?TM80s [when the endowment was performing poorly], we didnâ?TMt have very much money to spend, and as a result we were understaffed,â?? Dean of Students Laurie Hamre said.
According to Hamre, this trend continued through the 1990s, even as the value of Macalesterâ?TMs endowment skyrocketed, because most of the new capital went straight to sorely needed infrastructure upgrades, new buildings and new faculty positions.
A high student-staff ratio means that the staff members who do work at the college may be asked to do more than their counterparts at other schools.
According to Treasurer David Wheaton, Macalesterâ?TMs student-staff ratio, 5.5 to 1, is currently the highest among the top 40 most competitive liberal arts colleges in the U.S. Carleton, by comparison, has a ratio of 4 to 1.
Macalester currently employs about 330 staff members, a title that includes any employee who is not a member of the faculty. Carleton, with 1,900 students, employs 470 staff members.
But figuring out which departments suffer the most from thin staffing compared to peer schools is harder than it seems.
According to Wheaton, staff plans vary from college to college, making comparisons between different colleges difficult. To further complicate comparisons, many schools contract out some basic services like security, food, and accounting to outside agencies. Employees from private contractors are not considered college staff.
â?oeBecause of all this, itâ?TMs hard to pin down where shortages are most acute,â?? Wheaton said. â?oeHowever, the long term outlook suggests that we need to add positions in general.â??
Historically, Macalester has had a higher student-staff ratio than most of its comparison colleges.
â?oeBack in the â?TM70s and â?TM80s [when the endowment was performing poorly], we didnâ?TMt have very much money to spend, and as a result we were understaffed,â?? Dean of Students Laurie Hamre said.
According to Hamre, this trend continued through the 1990s, even as the value of Macalesterâ?TMs endowment skyrocketed, because most of the new capital went straight to sorely needed infrastructure upgrades, new buildings and new faculty positions.
A high student-staff ratio means that the staff members who do work at the college may be asked to do more than their counterparts at other schools.
Be the first to comment on this story