Week 4: Vy Nguyen A02

All of Week 4's readings discuss the reality of corporatism in relation to higher education; how institutions are creating systems and procedures that prioritizes their needs over that of bodies on campus. The readings specifically broke down different ways universities have/ are still exploiting, discriminating, and profiting off bodies.

For instance, at Purdue University, the hiring of more senior administrators than professor reinforces the idea that institutions are no longer under the control of educators, but rather, under that of those who see institutions as for-profit systems. Furthermore, Purdue is also trying to brand itself like a ‘J Crew catalog' (deBoer, 2015, para 4) by expanding and renovating certain aspects on campus. UC Davis is actually undergoing a similar process for the Silo, Tercero dorms, and the ARC weight room. Arguably, both schools are acting upon the interests of students since the number of students accepted are rising. However, given the nature of higher education now, institutions want to compete with one another by making their school look ‘picture-perfect' “such a reputation can be to attracting potential students” (deBoer, 2015, para 15).

A more blatant example of UC Davis’ for-profit behavior is the increase in tuition fees. As Alan Markow stated in his article, UCD released an official complaint in regards to the Occupy movement in 2011; particularly, how the cost for cleaning and repairing where student protest took place was more important than addressing the subject matter. Such response clearly shows the school's attempt at diverting our attention away “from the material politics that the administration often strenuously opposes" (deBoer, 2015, para 13) so that “students [can continue to be] the customers” (deBoer, 2015, para 5).

I can understand why corporatism can often go unheard because personally, sometimes I can sense that something is not right, but I do not act upon my intuition. As Amy Black Joy states “knowing the right thing to do is not the same as doing what's right” (Joy, 2014, pg. 71), and this is certainly true because people may fear for their job and security, so in the end, they remain silent. I personally think this is highly problematic because if we continue to let contemporary American universities make profits out of our educational investment, we are certainly letting ourselves be exploited and oppressed. I want to hone my action-oriented ethics, and one day, make change and shake up administrators so I can better my educational experiences and that of subsequent generations.

Citation: Preston (2013)

Though, Joy did discuss how we can stimulate dialogues about ethics but my question is: What are some practical ways we can develop, practice, and hone our action-oriented ethics?

References:

1. 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
2. Markow, A. (2011, December 22). A Tale of Two Campuses: Berkeley and Davis respond to Occupy movements. Retrieved from https://ivn.us/2011/12/19/a-tale-of-two-campuses-berkeley-and-davis-respond-to-occupy-movements/
3. Preston, K. (2013). The Corporatization of Higher Education [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://attackthesystem.com/2013/01/25/the-corporatization-of-higher-education/
4. Joy, A. B. (2014, May). Ethics and "Breaking Bad": Developing and Practicing Ethnical Skills. Compliance & Ethics Professional.