Two Things that Should Happen at UCF When Hitt and Hickey Leave

Emperor Hitt will retire from UCF in a few years. When Hitt leaves, Hickey will probably find other employment. In the unlikely event that the next UCF president isn’t some political hack (e.g., Frank Brogan; Betty Castor; T.K. Wetherell) then I have two recommendations for the new President.

1. Layoff unnecessary high level administrators. Excluding faculty, there are two types of employees at UCF: those who actually perform the day-to-day operations of the university (e.g., physical plant employees; financial aid processors) and “big thinker” employees (e.g., people with offices in Millican Hall). These “big thinker” employees are supposed to schmooze with politicians and the community and come up with ideas that will help UCF grow even larger. These are the employees that should be laid off. They are expensive and often their big ideas just end up being money pits for students, donors, and taxpayers. I could easily develop a list of about twenty employees that could disappear tomorrow, never be replaced, and UCF wouldn’t miss a beat. This could save UCF millions of dollars a year.

2. Reduce current growth by adopting rigorous academic standards. UCF likes to brag about how many degrees they have granted, but the more common a degree then the less valuable it is to the folks who’ve earned it. I saved an old UCF Report where UCF bragged about awarding their 100,000th degree much faster than Clemson did. It didn’t seem to occur to UCF administrators that UCF awarded degrees faster because UCF was an easier school.

I’m not hopeful that the above will ever happen. Still, it is important to articulate what an improvement would be even if an improvement is unrealistic.