Less is More, More or Less

by tracynicholrose

As cliched as it is, I do believe that less is more. It certainly is true of presentations. There is nothing worse than sitting through presentations that consist of thousands of Powerpoint slides. Except of course sitting through thousands of Powerpoint slides that are jam-packed with text. I believe “less is more” is true in writing as well, although I have a harder time following my own advice.

But while I may embrace the idea that less is more, I have grown quite tired of being asked to “do more with less.” The first few years I believed it was possible and it was. Academia, like many organizations, suffers from bloat and trimming some of the fat is not a bad idea. However after several years of budget cuts the efficiencies have been identified and enacted. At this point we are just doing less with less. I suppose one could argue we are doing “more with less” in that we are teaching more students with fewer faculty. However we are doing this with less quality. A lot less quality.

Of course academia is still bloated. The fat trimming has not been done as strategically as one would have liked. At least not one who has educating students and engaging in cutting edge research as the critical goals of a university. I understand others are working off quite a different model and the cuts may have been executed perfectly by their standards. At the faculty level what we are left with, however, is fewer resources to conduct the activities that reward both our students and ourselves. In the meantime the expectations for us to spend our time on assessment issues has grown substantially.

None of this is new or earth shattering to anyone living in academia these past several years. The question is, what do we do about it? Personally I am starting to pitch the idea that we “do less with more.” I would like to do less busy work and have more time to do the essential activities. I would like to teach fewer students with greater quality. I would like to produce less “product” with more thought.

What about you?