The role of faculty with the rise of new technologies like massive open online courses may be changing, but political scientist Ben Ginsberg argues it's already been changed by the rise of something else: deanlets.  

Deanlets, he explains, are administrators at universities who are often less knowledgeable about the institution but are asked to make big decisions about its direction, something previously done by faculty.  

Providing examples from his own time as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, Ginsberg explains this growth of administrators and shift of power from faculty to staff is largely based in presidential imperialism. 

These administrative structures are often imposed, he says, without attention as to whether they make sense for the university. "Our place has been eroded," Ginsberg says, "Our power has become circumvented."  

To prevent further erosion, he advises, "We have to be conscious of our interests as faculty and be conscious of how the faculty serves the University."

The following talk from WGBH's Forum Network was originally given on November 3, 2011 at Case Western Reserve University.

The Forum Network is a public media service of WGBH that collects thousands of video and audio lectures from the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policymakers, and community leaders, made available to the public for free.