Skyrocketing college tuitions and trillion-dollar student loan debt have put college and university spending in the spotlight. Policymakers, parents, and students are asking why tuitions at public four-year colleges and universities have soared nearly 160 percent since 1990 and how this is affecting the higher education workforce. This report looks at long-term employment changes on college and university campuses during the past two decades and examines fluctuations in faculty staffing patterns, growth in administrative positions, and the effects of the recent recession on long-standing employment trends. It goes beyond other studies (Zaback, 2011; Bennett, 2009) to explore the effects of these staffing changes on total compensation, institutional spending patterns, and ultimately tuitions. An appendix contains four table: (1) Average headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) employees per 1,000 FTE students, 1990-2012; (2) Number of employees by job classification, 1990-2012; (3) Average number of employees per 1,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, by job classification, 1990-2012; and (4) Change in wage and salary expenditures per total FTE staff, FY 2002-FY 2010.