The Dean gave a short speech to the faculty at a reception at Ohio State University's Faculty Club. One line really struck me. He said "We need to make it look as if we care about teaching."
I went up to the Dean afterwards and asked, "Do you mean `We need to care about teaching' or `We need to make it look as if we care about teaching'?"
The Dean replied "We need to make it look as if we care about teaching."
On a different occasion, the Dean told the math faculty that the Ohio State University made its decisions using the "Dispatch test". Administrators ask themselves "How will this look if it appears in the Columbus Dispatch?" which was the local newspaper. Not "is this the right thing to do?" but "how will it look in the press, if reporters find out about it?"
An official at my current university confided in me that the only way things will improve at the university is to go to the media, since that's the only thing the administrators will listen to.