Section A02
Group Write Up
University Corporatization
In “A Tale of Two Campuses” by Alan Markow, the difference in reactions to the Occupy movements of the administrations of the UC Berkeley and UC Davis are analyzed. In particular, Markow finds that while Berkeley was affected positively by making campus costs more affordable, which is the main purpose of the Occupy protests, Davis responded by accusing the protesters of causing additional expenses to the university. As proof, the administration released a statement claiming that custodians spent a Sunday cleaning graffiti and carpets; in stark contrast, the Berkeley administration released a new financial-aid plan to lower university fees for middle-income families, called MCap.
This outrageous response is not an anomaly within the UC Davis administration. As an officer for an on-campus club, I have experienced a similar hostility from the administration for seemingly harmless activities. For example, to promote our club, we wrote our club name on some blackboards the day before school started; the next day, I received an email saying that our club might be charged for the extra hours required by the clean-up crew for our actions (erasing a few chalkboards). The ironic part is that we encountered three different custodians while chalking, all of whom granted us their permission to write upon the chalkboards.
Another instance of “us versus them” mentality by the UC Davis administration is the fact that they charge on-campus clubs for booking rooms to meet in. In other words, a legitimately registered club on campus is still required to pay the university in order to host official meetings. Despite the fact that the campus is supposed to promote and stimulate educational ventures, and that our tuition costs are at an all-time high, financial obstacles implemented by the administration for corporate incentives hinder the growth of our education. Finally, ex-Chancellor Linda Katehi, who participated in undocumented moonlighting for a major textbook corporation, is a pinnacle representation of the corporatization of the university. While she gained hundreds of thousands of dollars while sitting on the board for Wiley & Sons, among other organizations, she also responded to the Occupy Wall Street protests in Davis by ordering the assistance of police officers to remove student protesters from campus. The incident infamously resulted in an officer pepper spraying benign students. This demonstration of unnecessary cruelty is an example of the vast dichotomy between our school’s corporate administration, and the students’ well-being. Rather than respond to the protests against hikes in student fees in a positive way, to reassure students of the importance of accessibility to higher education, the UC Davis administration led by ex-Chancellor Katehi chose to silence students who spoke up.
In contrast, the fact that the UC Berkeley Chancellor at the time of the Occupy movement, Robert Birgeneau, stated that he realized we must do something about the increasing inaccessibility of public higher-education for middle-income families, promoted the idea that the UC Berkeley administration was working for and alongside students to improve their educations.
As students at the University of California, Davis, we have been personally affected by the increasing corporatization and irresponsible allocation of resources by the university. Every year, it seems the University spends millions of dollars building new dorms (so that they may admit more students), and in renovating the exterior appearance of the campus, in hopes of attracting more students. This increased focus on adding students has direct negative impacts on the current students of the university. The administration is neglecting facilities that don't provide them any direct profit, such as larger parking lots or improved study spaces. Throughout most of the university, it is almost impossible to find any parking in the middle of the day, and often students spend anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes just looking for a place to park so that they can go to class. The university can easily build additional parking lots for the students, as they are definitely much cheaper to build than dorms, but do not do so because parking lots do not provide them as much profit as admitting more students.
If one visits facilities such as the Memorial Union, it is obvious that those who are supposed to be improving these facilities have the wrong aims in mind. The Memorial Union was just renovated over the past few years, and one would expect increased space and amenities to accommodate the growing student population. Instead, it seems most of the renovation was spent on improving the internal appearance of the facilities, rather than in adding functionality. While the memorial union is now definitely a better sight for tour groups of prospective students, they have added barely any additional study space for students. The result is that the memorial union is still packed, all tables are full, and charging outlets are sparse. To me, this is a direct display of gross incompetence on the part of the administration. It seems that educational facilities are no longer the priority of the administration. They would rather use university resources to create facilities to convince prospective students to attend the university.
Finally, this increasing focus on admittance over education quality at the university has an even more direct impact on the students. While more and more students are being admitted, fewer and fewer professors are being hired by the university. What this has led to is a higher student to teacher ratio, and an increase in less qualified short-term adjunct lecturers, instead of professors, as teachers. The more and more students are admitted, the less and less each student can receive direct attention during their classes. More and more, classes are becoming standardized and impersonal, rather than tailored to the needs of students. Additionally, in some cases, students cannot even get classes that they need to graduate, due to the sheer volume of people trying to get into these classes. Rather than trying to expand these classes by hiring more professors, the university is hiring more administrators and spending money to attract even more students, further compounding the problem
Whistleblower follows a faculty member, Amy Block Joy, and her experience with the aftermath of discovering evidence of embezzlement within the institution and the reaction, or lack thereof, by the university. “Ethics and ‘Breaking Bad’: Developing and practicing ethical skills” includes an article also written by Amy Block Joy on how to teach ethics, or at least how to teach how to practice ethical action. She cites her own experiences with the events from “Whistleblower: Police” as a situation in which what was right was clear but doing what was right was not only difficult but felt wrong on certain levels.
“Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-year Assault on the Middle Class” outlines the evolution of the public university as it changed from a research institution acting as an equalizer for the middle class in the face of an elitist system that rewarded monetary background over quality of the person into a system that has an unhealthy symbiotic relationship with corporate interests. “Why We Should Fear University, Inc.” expands on this, showing how it systematically takes power from both students and professors, as well as focusing the problems back onto the other party, thus shifting the blame from the administration issues and allowing the corrupting influence to continue growing without contest.
There is no doubt that the industrialization and globalization of the world has caused a shift in the sphere of public education, but sometimes it is easy to forget the extent to which universities have become an income source rather than a place of learning. However, it is not something that we are completely powerless against, but the first step into changing the system is to recognize both that the issue exists as well as the true source of the problem.
Works Cited
Chomsky, Noam. “Noam Chomsky: The Corporatization of the University.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 July 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=66w9Lf9yuZA.
deBoer, Fredrik. “Why We Should Fear University, Inc.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2015, www.nytimes.com.
Joy, Amy Block. Whistleblower. Bay Tree Publishing, 5 Jan. 2011.
Joy, Amy Block. “Ethics and ‘Breaking Bad’: Developing and practicing ethical skills.” Compliance and Ethics Professional. May 2014, pp 71-74.
Markow, Alan. “A Tale of Two Campuses: Berkeley and Davis respond to Occupy movements.” IVN.us, 22 Dec. 2011.
Newfield, Christopher. Unmaking the public university: the forty-Year assault on the middle class. Harvard University Press, 2011.
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