Numbers--of publications, grant money, PhD students, and invited talks, for example--play too large a role in assessments of faculty. The author's thirty-five years of experience in higher education have convinced him that overreliance on such numbers is a big problem, especially, but not exclusively, in the sciences. Every scientist recognizes the "numbers problem," but administrators, who need to assess the relative merits of faculty, sometimes find it difficult to understand that numbers are not really adequate or "objective" criteria for evaluation. In this article, the author discusses the questionable use of quantitative data in evaluating faculty in the sciences. He describes some negative consequences of the emphasis on numbers and offers possible solutions.