How a university works - The Business Office

Universities are not business, and anyone who thinks they should be run like a business doesn't know enough about education to be put in the position to make such a decision. However, that being said, things need to be bought, money needs to change hands, and it's good to keep track of things. For these reasons the business office exists. Now here's where the problem arises. Prof. Phactor for why did you buy these items? As it states on the reimbursement form, they were lab supplies. But you were buying fruits and vegetables? Correct, those are my lab supplies. But they can be used as food. Correct again, and that's why they are lab supplies; food is the subject of study. Are you feeding the students with this food? Why should it matter if things are consumed as part of their study? We are not certain these are appropriate purchases. Well, fortunately deciding what is and is not appropriate for my teaching is not your job to determine. It says here you purchased malt; isn't it used to make beer. Correct, malt is one of the ingredients of beer, but how it is used is not your concern. Again we question the appropriateness of this purchase. Why did you wait so long to ask for reimbursement on some of these purchases? Well, it's been a busy semester, and we all have a lot less paper work if the receipts are accumulated for awhile and combined in one reimbursement request. Do you spend so much time on every reimbursement? Do you have so much time, so little to do that you think a weekly filing for reimbursement is better than one filing per month? Check. And so it goes. People who have no idea at all about education nonetheless get to question what we do. And that's good business?