The Independent School: A Critical Time, Part III
And what of those Monetary Administrators?
As I wrote in my previous posts, the Age of the Monetary Adminstrators was ushered in by fiscal realities. Schools began looking for people with business savvy, or considerable fund-raising capacity, to appoint to headmaster/headmister positions. The "master/mistress" part of the title was sacrificed on the altar (alter?) of political correctness ( a whole new blog possiblility right here). Increasing the influx of full-pay students became paramount. The importance of the administrative Admissions and of Advancement officers increased astronomically. Tapping both sources, tuition and annual giving, in the effort to raise vast sums of money became the name of the game. This is why every independent school now has an advancement officer. They used to be called heads of development, but Advancement seems to have a more dynamic and power-fraught, a more attractive, even "sexier" ring to it.
At its best, Advancement is the real deal. It taps into the emotional make-up of its alumni/ae (or their parents), brings them back into the fold, and gives them the opportunity to somehow repay what cannot ever be paid, inasmuchas quantity can only approximate, never match, quality. Our schools help us become who we are. There is no repaying of that unfathomable debt. Ever.
At its worst - too often the case - Avancement is verbal smoke and mirrors. It can play on the emotions of its constituents to give to something that no longer exists.
Financially, a school doesn't "advance".
It doesn't make money.
It may increase its endowment, but any advancement it makes should be measured in terms of how those dollars augment and deepen the environment in which students learn.
But if you have a Monetary Administrator, what price do you pay?
Answer: the academics of the place get put on the back burner.
Quantity takes over from Quality.
You take from Quality and give to Quantity.
If you have teachers who have only a certain number of students, or teach only a certain number of some arbitrary number, that must mean that they should be paid less.
Even if those teachers reach students like nobody else can.
This doesn't happen everywhere.
But there are too many places where it does.
The mark of such schools is to be pennywise and academically foolish.
Major problem: Kids aren't stupid.
They can see when administration puts dollars ahead of academics.
Kids conclude, rightly or not, that the school's interest is financial.
They doubt the program to which they have committed themselves.
Unfortunately, too often, their conclusion is correct.
And their doubts, alas, are more than justified.