> a proposal that we get rid of all administrative staff and replace them with academics
This is similar to how Colleges in Oxbridge are administered. They do have full time administrative staff but only the bare minimum and the academic staff has more administrative responsibilities. This arrangement is very effective at keeping red tape under control. Example: at a German university if you need a new printer, you have to fill endless forms (finding out which can be non-trivial) and you have to wait weeks for the approval. I you want to order a printer in November or December, that's simply impossible because of end-of-year accounting. At the college in Oxford where I worked, I went to the IT person and said that I need a printer. He gave me a new printer right away and I was good to go. Not even a signature was required. I have many more such examples. It's not clear though to what extend this common-sense-driven approach to administration can be scaled up to bigger institutions like universities.
This is similar to how Colleges in Oxbridge are administered. They do have full time administrative staff but only the bare minimum and the academic staff has more administrative responsibilities. This arrangement is very effective at keeping red tape under control. Example: at a German university if you need a new printer, you have to fill endless forms (finding out which can be non-trivial) and you have to wait weeks for the approval. I you want to order a printer in November or December, that's simply impossible because of end-of-year accounting. At the college in Oxford where I worked, I went to the IT person and said that I need a printer. He gave me a new printer right away and I was good to go. Not even a signature was required. I have many more such examples. It's not clear though to what extend this common-sense-driven approach to administration can be scaled up to bigger institutions like universities.