Maximilian Probstel 

Section A03

      In this week’s reading, the article “Imperial University” by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira was to me the most interesting of the two articles because it touched on very relatable topics. Additionally, the apt analysis showed comprehensive understanding of the repression within and from American Universities. Wether it is the fear of getting incarcerated  as a consequence for protesting students about the increase in tuition, professors loosing their jobs due to publishing articles on their opinion about US Government or wether it is the fear a muslim student feels, due to the prejudice towards him/her. These three points struck me the most because, it showed me that behind the curtain of academia, universities can be a hostile environment. 

       The article first alludes to the aggressive response by UC schools towards student occupy movements. An example of this can be seen with the pepper spray incident at UC Davis, throughout the history of student protests, many have been incarcerated even for as long as eleven years. These strict and over the top consequences for mild actions such as protests by the university I thought of as highly interesting. 

       To continue another point the article highlights, is the repression of professors by the university about ethical issues that could harm the University or the Government. This reminded me of professor Amy Block Joy’s story, who herself experienced the backlash not only by the university but also by her coworkers when she “whistle blew” and therefore outed the university on its wrongdoings. 

       The last topic that I found fascinating was the “post-9/11” prejudice, disguised as “homeland security”, towards muslim students throughout universities.  This I found very interesting since even at university, a place of pure academia, prejudice is still happening. A recent example that happened at UC Davis was the attack on the mosque on Russell Blvd. This attack only consisted of a woman popping tires of bikes outside the mosque, but the attacker’s message was clear. 

Finally, after having read the article, I realised that Universities are not only about playing frisbee with your interracial group of friends in the park, but my perspective is that they have turned very political and into corporations. 

Question: The US military used university research to better their military, in an ethical standpoint, is this right since you are using a place of education to improve possible weapons of mass destruction?

I added an article of the videos of the UC Davis pepper spray incident in 2011. 

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-davis-pepper-spray-internet-20160415-story.html

Sources: 
Chatterjee, Piya, and Sunaina Maira. "Introduction The Imperial University." The Imperial University (2014): 1-50. Web.
Parvini, Sarah. "UC Davis defends paying to remove pepper-spray references from Internet." LATimes (11/08/2011): n. pag. LATimes. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.