Week 4-Yiwen Bao

Yiwen Bao

ASA 2 A01

Week 4

Two readings from this week interested me: “Why We Should Fear University, Inc” by deBoer Fredrik and “Ethics and ‘Breaking Bad’: Developing and Practicing Ethical Skills” by Amy Block Joy. The first reading debunks the corporatization of universities and calls for students’ attention and actions towards such truth in universities. The second reading teaches authors to learn and develop ethical skills to fight against unethical actions. I feel two readings could be related by calling actions to change current corporatized universities full of bureaucrats. When deBoer Fredrik lists many signs of corporatization on campus such as advertising, engagement of business brands, I feel totally connected with those marketing side of corporatization of universities because I can easily see shops, advertisements on campus. However, how administrative aspect works is secret for me and most students. Before reading this, I didn’t know the number of administrators already exceed the number of teachers. That’s surprising and reminds me of Chinese factories in 1980s. In many of those factories, there were more people sitting in office than working outside. It was very ineffective and out of a good reasonable system to control how the factory work. Those officers only aimed at making own money with least efforts and treating workers unfair. Everyone had their own destiny or luck to sit on different positions, making a living, accepting what you had now without fighting for rights. I believe calling for actions from students worth a lot. Students either don’t know the truth in corporatization of universities or prefer focusing on academics to caring about inequality issues around. So practices taught in Amy Block Joy’s reading can give insights: a culture and good judging system of seeking for equality and ethics should be built. For the case of stealing flasks and laptops discussed, I would also feel unsure about what to do. There’re so many factors like job, peer-pressure, social relationships to consider, so many “depending on”. Only when more and more people were during the same thing (fighting against reality for rights, ethics and equality), others would feel confident and secure to join and take actions. 

Questions:

What specific actions can students do to challenge the corporatization of universities? Is it realistic for administrations of universities to truly care about inequality issues on campus? What could be their motivations and how should the system change in universities?

Should people who consider own interests such as job security, relationships with others first when coming to ethical problems like seeing a colleague breaking rules be blamed? If so, who have the right to blame them? If a person would report to boss when an expensive equipment was stolen but not a cheaper flask, should he be classified as uncaring on ethics?

References:

deBoer, F. (2015, September 09). Why We Should Fear University, Inc. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved October 13, 2017.

Joy, A. B. (2014, May). Ethics and “Breaking Bad”: Developing and Practicing Ethical Skills. Compliance and Ethics Professional. Retrieved October 14, 2017.

Bliss, S. (2013, January 25). The Corporatization of Higher Education. Retrieved October 14, 2017. 

https://attackthesystem.com/2013/01/25/the-corporatization-of-higher-education/