Week 5 A03 Nelofer Siddiqui

The Imperial University, by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira, describes the increased militarization of universities, specifically those in the University of California system. I am familiar with the ever-popular concept of corporatization of the university, and militarization is very similar. Both involve higher powers infiltrating the university in order to incorporate their own regime, and both leave me with conflicting thoughts. The incident that sticks out the most to me, mostly because we discussed it in class, is the pepper spray incident. The juxtaposition of the fact that this took place at a university, a place of education, against the university's response to it - the police - is shocking. UC Davis is supposed to be a place of learning and opportunity. The idea of police and military having a constant presence on campus, restricting students from protesting or standing up for things that they believe in, defeats the purpose of the university. The vivid descriptions in the article of the presence of forces on campus were unnerving to read and imagine. The description of the helicopter circling the sky stood out to me. I can't imagine something like that happening at Davis, a school which, to me, seems to be coherent and peaceful. The students and faculty all seem so friendly, but based on what I've learned in ASA in the past few weeks, there's often a lot more going on beneath the surface.



Question: What are the benefits vs. risks of the militarization of universities?