Aparna_Komarla_A04_Week_4

Aparna Komarla
Week 4: Blog Post
SID: 913896026

This post is in response to the article about Amy Block Joy, a UC Davis professor who revealed embezzlement and fraud in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition, when she worked as a director of the UC Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program. 

It is shocking to confront the fact that this incident occurred on our campus not many years ago. It prompts me to think about similar instances of whistleblowing that have occurred in recent years that have perhaps been covered up through settlements or other tactics to keep information under the radar. The case of Sarah Hahn, the director of Counseling and Psychological Services who was terminated after she filed for whiste-blower protection when she claimed that the university had misused 18 million dollars that was meant to increase mental health services on campus. An excerpt from The Aggie reads “The letter comes on the heels of mounting criticism and concern expressed by Hahn to both her superiors and administrators at UC Davis, as well as officials from the UC Office of the President, that an increase in student fees for the ongoing $18 million mental health initiative from UCOP was not spent to hire 12 additional counselors at UC Davis, as the money was intended to do.”

This discussion on whistleblowers, and embezzlement and corruption in the UC system brings to light the corporatization and capitalistic machines that the institution of education has reduced to today. It is interesting to think about these incidents within the context of the ideals of the Rockefeller, who sought to establish education as a tool to further capitalism and “train” the masses to serve the needs of the growth of capitalism in the United States. Perhaps the institution of education was never established to truly “educate”. Perhaps these incidents of embezzlement truly are a consequence of what was intentional.

Media:
https://theaggie.org/2018/02/16/director-counseling-psychological-services-terminated-raising-concerns-allocation-mental-health-funds/
https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/ucd/ucd-whistleblower-gets-1-7m-settlement/

References:
1. Joy, Amy Block. "Chapter 1." Whistleblower, Bay Tree Publishing, 2010, pp. 1-9.
2. Holzer, Hannah. “Director of Counseling and Psychological Services terminated after raising concerns about allocation of mental health funds.” The California Aggie. Retrieved from: https://theaggie.org/2018/02/16/director-counseling-psychological-services-terminated-raising-concerns-allocation-mental-health-funds/