Week 4 - Christopher Mai - A01

                The readings this week go over how public universities have been showing corporate traits by making for-profit moves and acting for higher-ups more than acting for students. For instance, Fredrik deBoer writes in "Why We Should Fear University, Inc." about the way Purdue University is changing its campus in ways that benefits the university more than the students (ie. demolishing the garden for research buildings). Analogously, here at UC Davis, the administration has called for remodeling of the Silo and the M.U., and although these areas benefit the students by providing them a better environment, it benefits the university more by giving outsiders a better impression of its campus. Issues that only affect students, such as rising tuition costs, remain untouched.

                When thinking about corporatization at UC Davis, I remember the controversy over former Chancellor Linda Katehi's decisions on spending university money on covering up the pepper spray incident, as well as revelations on each administrator's annual salaries from UC Davis being more than enough to cover the costs of 10 students' entire expenses to attend UC Davis. Such wasteful spending definitely makes me feel UC Davis acts more like a corporation that feeds its profits to the higher-up administrators, as they desire to further increase their already-six-figure salary.

Question: Corporatization is an issue across all of our capitalist society. How can we change the system to build better leaders, administrators, and CEOs who will only profit as much as they need and use further profits for the greater good? (Bill Gates and Elon Musk are good philanthropic examples)

Media:

I chose this photo because it strongly resonates with how I feel after finding out about the way University of California administrators have been spending and earning their money.

\

References:

DeBoer, F. (2015, September 9). Why We Should Fear University, Inc. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/why-we-should-fear-university-inc.html