Colleges across the country are plagued by financial concerns. The University of Nevada-Las Vegas may shed up to 6000 students, and many others, like Duke University, will raise tuition.

But students concerned about their schools' budget crises can take action. Mark Bauerlein, an Emory University professor, penned an excellent instruction guide for The Chronicle of Higher Education. It's written for professors, but students can do the work just as well.

"A suggestion for professors in Georgia and anywhere else threatened by these kinds of dollar signs. Do a 10-year comparison. Go back to 2000 and find an organizational chart for the administration, then set it alongside the organizational chart for 2010.

"How many more deans are there, including assistants and associates? How many vice presidents have been added to the system? How many new offices have been created?

"Most important, how much do they cost?
"At public institutions, these numbers should be readily available. If universities won't give them up, file an "open records" request with the legal counsel, contact inquisitive reporters, and make allies with well-positioned state legislators.

"Nobody likes bureaucracy, in part because bureaucracies try to get bigger all the time. They always regard more of themselves, not less, as the solution to every problem that arises.

[...]

"Faculty members need to remember that teachers and students are the centers of the college.  Administrators are secondary, and their job is to assist teachers in their teaching and students in their learning. The more administrators position their work independently of that mission, the more they will continue the dilation, and the more they will pass on financial pressures to adjunctization, larger class sizes, and tuition jumps."

If you're ready to get started, here's how you can take action.

1. Share this story with people you know.
2. Follow the steps Bauerlein describes. Track the growth of school administration and the cost associated with it. Try to determine the greatest cost increases in the past decade.
3. Publish your research as a blog post on your campus at CampusReform.org, so other campus reformers can learn about your cause.
4. Contact CampusReform.org staff for advice, assistance, and support in using your research to make a change on your campus.
5. Get ready to make a difference. It will work.

Here's how I know. Kevin King, editor-in-chief of The Conservative Hawk at UNC-Wilmington, has spent this school year tracking the budget shortfalls at UNCW. For his work, he's received significant attention from faculty and staff.

Plus, Kevin's efforts drew the attention of a local conservative radio show. He was invited on the program to talk about UNCW's problems...and now, he hosts his own radio show, The Campus Right, on the station every week night.