Administrative bureaucracy is killing higher education in America…and dramatically driving up its cost.

By way of example, administrators at West Virginia University, an old land-grant college in Morgantown, West Virginia (yes, that idyllic Morgantown) outnumber teaching staff 2 to 1, according to research done by The College Fix:

During the 2021-22 school year, which are the most recent data available, the institution employed 74 educators per 1,000 students and while employing 140 administrative and support staffers per 1,000 students.

Here's one such administrator who is promoted on the university's website:

Meshea L. Poore, Esq., a long-time champion of underrepresented people, serves as vice president and chief diversity officer for the West Virginia University Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In that role, she motivates the Mountaineer family to recognize the value in diversity and challenges all who interact with her to create transformational change.

Poore has been helping light the way toward equity throughout her career. An attorney who served in the WV House of Delegates from 2009-2014, she is an accomplished and sought-after motivational speaker, public and political leadership consultant and strategist. The Women’s Campaign Fund named her a “Game Changer” during her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives for WV's 2nd Congressional District. She has mentored and consulted with hundreds of elected officials throughout the nation as they seek higher office.

Her bio also says she's fond of promoting 'diversity' through the works of controversial wokesters in academia:

Poore has facilitated insightful conversations with leading voices in social justice work, including Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award Winner and author of How to Be an Antiracist; Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and creator of the landmark 1619 Project;

There are more of her than there are of actual professors.

Talk about ass backwards. Or worse.

While Joni Mitchell sang and chirruped about Morgantown as being the place where one could buy one's dreams a dollar down, there seems to be a bigger appetite for dollars for these administrators in that town these days.

Poore, the school’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, makes an astounding $234,537 per year-- plus benefits-- a salary that dwarfs that of her fellow employees and makes a mockery of WVU’s $45 million deficit, where, according to The College Fix, the art history and engineering departments are expected to be eliminated.

According to Openpayrolls.com, Poore’s salary is “298.0 percent higher than the average pay for her co-workers.” Her salary is nearly two-and-a-half times greater than that of the average full-time professor at West Virginia University, and five-and-a-half times more than the average salary of the school’s other office and administrative support staff.

Poor(e)? Hardly.        

Ms. Meshea, you are the VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, for crying out loud. Equity? Unless you are just another progressive fraud, you should put your money where your mouth is. Share your salary.

Image: RawPixel / public domain