Week 4 - Yingjun Huang

ASA 002 A01

Yingjun Huang

Week 4

My understanding towards Why We Should Fear University, Inc. by Fredrik DeBoer is that when universities acting more like a company, it’s going to marginalize both students and professors, leaving no space for different voices. In such environment, students take this corporatized structure for granted and never think about criticizing or improving it, but simply use it as a method to eliminate opinions they disliked as this is what they perceived. In the author’s word, they are being “tamed” by the corporatism.

I honestly had no idea of what corporatism is before reading this article, but one thing I know is that one-party state is bad. Eliminating individual ideas, everything serves the greater profit of the institution, this is the worst nightmare I could ever imagine. The main part of a university should be made up of students and professors and what university present ought to be colorful with every individual shining their own light of talent. People should be allowed to have individual opinions, and debate about it from varies perspective.

When DeBoer said “there are fewer who remembered what campus once was, or would want to fight for it” I feel like I can faintly understand what kind of campus he was longing for: with lively atmosphere where everyone has the freedom to express their ideas, to debate, and not to worry about being restrained or dichotomized.

I may be tamed, I may be not. Struggling within a structure is hard, but otherwise, we will be drowned.

Match with my understanding of corporatism: sacrificing individuals to institutions.

Question:

But after all we might be in the same structure as well. How to know if we’re tamed? How to stay sober?

References:

1. Frederik deBoer. Why We Should Fear University, Inc.:Against the corporate taming of the American college. The New York Times Magazine, 2015. Retrieved October 15, 2017.

2. Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism [Digital image]. (2012) Retrieved October 15, 2017 from https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/blaming-capitalism-for-corporatism-12616