Week 4 - Alan Sani

Alan Sani
Section A03
Week 4

This week’s readings relate back to the idea that universities are beginning to function more and more like large corporations every year. The fight to prioritize the students and our education is a battle that many college students have taken part in especially in recent years and especially here in the UC system. Four out of the five of the readings this week elaborated on problems and incidents that happened here in the UC system. Based on the readings Block Joy Whistle Blower and A Tale of Two Campuses we know that Davis on its own has had issues involving embezzlement and the hiding and concealing of problems and incidents. The anecdote that is shared with us in the Block Joy reading describe a long time faculty member’s struggle to keep her job and the respect of her peers only because she values doing what is right. She dealt with so much pressure because she wanted to report a clear case of embezzlement. Many of the higher ups and executives in the UC System and at other public universities alike only keep their own interests in mind. Even if it means sacrificing the priorities of the professors and the students.  Here at UC Davis, where the student protests are not as frequent as UC Berkeley, the administration feels more entitled to silence our voices as students. Our student’s concerns are more easily brushed to the side and any protest meant to counter this attitude is painted in a bad light. For me as a first year college student in 2017, I really haven’t had the opportunity to speak up about the price of my tuition or the budget of the UC system.  I know that many of the students in the past have protested high tuition hikes or against the way money is allocated in our system. But at this point I feel like I have had to accept the price that we pay even though it is much higher than it once was. Students shouldn’t have to settle for whatever the university wants to gives us. Because Universities are intuitions of higher education not corporations and students pay to be here.  

Question: Is the corporatization of the university inevitable in a public school system as large as the UC system? are protests the only way that our students voices can be heard?


https://www.ted.com/talks/kandice_sumner_how_america_s_public_schools_keep_kids_in_poverty

-The title of this ted talk describes perfectly what the possible out outcome of the corporatization of the university could be. This video discusses a different but related issue that primarily takes place in the American k-12 public school system. However this video the speaker focuses on the demographic who will be most effected by the corporatization of the university when they reach the university level.