Week 4 Lucero Hernandez Cruz A04

In the reading by DeBoer in “Why we should Fear University,” it talks about how corporations are a threat to the identity of individuals and schools. We talked about the topic of universities partnering with big businesses like Amazon, Google, Apple, Starbucks, among others in order to receive funding but at the same time, they do not take into consideration the impact that it has on not only the school but the students as well. The article mentioned how schools are starting to look more alike in architectural design and they are starting to lose their unique identity, for example in the reading it was the vegetable garden but they are trying to take it away from Purdue University and build a research park. The majority of the extensions benefit only those that are in the top administration of the universities and said corporations. Furthermore, in Thursday's lecture, Karen asked what the difference was between the US and our parent's definition of knowledge. The US definition of knowledge is structured to fit a certain model and its based on the information that individuals are able to gather from the textbooks and it is assumed that those are the “facts”. On the other hand, some definitions of knowledge from parents are that they allow their children to explore and not be limited to such structured categories. Additionally, this reminded me of what Dee Dee Yang mentioned in the discussion of her research, where each Hmong batik means something different and it has special significance, that I believe correlates to the significance of even a small garden for students. The allows me to understand how its essential that students have a place where they can go that is not surrounded by the influence and constant reminder of these big corporations. 

Question:

Is there any possibility that there could be a reduction in the number of corporations that come unto one school? How can we limit the influence of big corporations? 

References:

DeBoer, F. (2015). Why We Should Fear University, Inc.: Against the corporate taming of the American College. The New York Times Magazine, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/why-we-should-fear-university-inc.html

Waldman, C. (2016). Daily DIsh: Students Gain Career Experience through School Partnerships with Local Business. Alliance For Excelled Education. Retrieved from https://all4ed.org/daily-dish-students-gain-career-experience-through-school-partnerships-with-local-businesses/  [image]