// API callback
related_results_labels_thumbs({"version":"1.0","encoding":"UTF-8","feed":{"xmlns":"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom","xmlns$openSearch":"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/","xmlns$blogger":"http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008","xmlns$georss":"http://www.georss.org/georss","xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","xmlns$thr":"http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0","id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889"},"updated":{"$t":"2021-06-24T13:35:47.344-07:00"},"category":[{"term":"Budget"},{"term":"UC"},{"term":"Admin Responses"},{"term":"Crisis"},{"term":"guest post"},{"term":"Funding Model"},{"term":"Cuts"},{"term":"Faculty"},{"term":"Public Funding"},{"term":"UC Regents"},{"term":"Protests"},{"term":"Public vs. Private"},{"term":"Costs"},{"term":"Politics"},{"term":"UCOP"},{"term":"Governance"},{"term":"Students"},{"term":"Strategies \u0026 Goals"},{"term":"Academic Labor"},{"term":"California"},{"term":"Academic Freedom"},{"term":"Management"},{"term":"Inequality"},{"term":"Austerity"},{"term":"Jerry Brown"},{"term":"Online Education"},{"term":"Privatization"},{"term":"Employee Benefits"},{"term":"UC Berkeley"},{"term":"Janet Napolitano"},{"term":"Shared Governance"},{"term":"Campus Safety"},{"term":"Income"},{"term":"Research"},{"term":"Academic Senate"},{"term":"Cal State"},{"term":"Tuition Hikes"},{"term":"archives"},{"term":"Affordability"},{"term":"Contingent Faculty"},{"term":"Future University"},{"term":"Quality"},{"term":"Humanities"},{"term":"UC Santa Barbara"},{"term":"Race"},{"term":"UCOF"},{"term":"Administrative Overreach"},{"term":"Development"},{"term":"International"},{"term":"Mark Yudof"},{"term":"Pension"},{"term":"Unions"},{"term":"UC Care"},{"term":"UC Davis"},{"term":"public goods"},{"term":"Transparency"},{"term":"Liberal Arts"},{"term":"Covid-19"},{"term":"Events"},{"term":"Financial Aid"},{"term":"Community College"},{"term":"Furlough"},{"term":"UC Riverside"},{"term":"Graduates"},{"term":"Policing"},{"term":"STEM"},{"term":"Tenure"},{"term":"democratic university"},{"term":"For-Profit"},{"term":"University of Wisconsin System"},{"term":"Discrimination"},{"term":"Diversity"},{"term":"Economy"},{"term":"Steven Salaita"},{"term":"UC Los Angeles"},{"term":"Athletics"},{"term":"Corruption"},{"term":"Critical University Studies"},{"term":"Neoliberalism"},{"term":"Religion \u0026 Culture"},{"term":"Teaching"},{"term":"UCLA"},{"term":"UC Irvine"},{"term":"UCPD"},{"term":"UCSC"},{"term":"health care"},{"term":"Academic everything"},{"term":"Graduate Student Conditions"},{"term":"Isla Vista Shootings"},{"term":"Linda Katehi"},{"term":"Philanthropy"},{"term":"Academic Boycotts"},{"term":"Admissions"},{"term":"Biden"},{"term":"British Universities"},{"term":"Closures"},{"term":"Democrats"},{"term":"Grad Student Strike"},{"term":"K-12"},{"term":"Margaret Spellings"},{"term":"Presidential search"},{"term":"Quantification"},{"term":"Sexual Harassment"},{"term":"Student Debt"},{"term":"UC Health"},{"term":"Workforce"},{"term":"anti-racist pedagogy"},{"term":"higher education policy"},{"term":"reparations"},{"term":"2020 Election"},{"term":"ACCJC vs. CCSF"},{"term":"Budget Cuts"},{"term":"Cooper Union"},{"term":"Covid-19 Cuts"},{"term":"Cuts \u0026 Cuts"},{"term":"Debt-Free College"},{"term":"Fake Knoweldge"},{"term":"Fake Knowledge"},{"term":"FutherCuts"},{"term":"Gender"},{"term":"LGBTQ"},{"term":"Metrics"},{"term":"More Cuts"},{"term":"Newsom"},{"term":"Nonpecuniary effects"},{"term":"November 2009"},{"term":"President Drake"},{"term":"State Audit"},{"term":"Structural Racism"},{"term":"UC Merced"},{"term":"UCSB"},{"term":"UCSF"},{"term":"USC"},{"term":"University of Missouri"},{"term":"Vegara vs. California"},{"term":"abolition"},{"term":"abortion"},{"term":"carbon offsets"},{"term":"climate crisis"},{"term":"climate policy"},{"term":"human capital theory"},{"term":"opinion survey"},{"term":"public support"},{"term":"review of The Great Mistake"},{"term":"slavery"},{"term":"stimulus"},{"term":"value of a college degree"},{"term":"white nationalism"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Remaking the University"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":"A blog on higher education and related issues."},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/-\/Students?alt=json-in-script\u0026max-results=10"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/search\/label\/Students"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"},{"rel":"next","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/-\/Students\/-\/Students?alt=json-in-script\u0026start-index=11\u0026max-results=10"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"61"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"10"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-2313356488874336228"},"published":{"$t":"2020-02-24T22:01:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-02-24T22:01:17.028-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Academic Freedom"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Administrative Overreach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Graduates"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UCSC"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Faculty Letter Opposing Request that UCSC Undergrads Inform on Disruptors"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"                    \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-rjYQu_euliQ\/XlS3xjeZzEI\/AAAAAAAAEUE\/iBbK1ycG6FcQ2Kdg2d_ivBOFiNcrvteqwCNcBGAsYHQ\/s1600\/Informant%2BIntercept%2Bheader.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"808\" data-original-width=\"1346\" height=\"192\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-rjYQu_euliQ\/XlS3xjeZzEI\/AAAAAAAAEUE\/iBbK1ycG6FcQ2Kdg2d_ivBOFiNcrvteqwCNcBGAsYHQ\/s320\/Informant%2BIntercept%2Bheader.png\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EFebruary 13, 2020  \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EDear Chancellor Larive and Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Kletzer,\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EWe, the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/cascholars4academicfreedom.wordpress.com\/\"\u003ECalifornia Scholars for Academic Freedom\u003C\/a\u003E,* a group of over two hundred scholars throughout California, write with grave concern about the Google form “Notification of Class and Section Disruption” sent on February 7, 2020 to UCSC undergraduates in relation to the graduate student strike demanding a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).\u003Cspan\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003EThis form asks students to surveil and report on conversations occurring in the course of instruction.\u003Cspan\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003EIt sets a dangerous precedent of surveillance that undermines the core principles of academic freedom. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EThe university produces knowledge and practice critical to the operations of a democracy. The ideal of academic freedom is at the core of the university in a democratic society.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EAcademic freedom is a cornerstone of education in a free society. Its definition includes such items as what are called ‘the four essential freedoms’ of a university, to determine, on academic grounds, who will teach, what they may teach, how they teach and who may study. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EAcademic freedom requires that faculty and students can participate in intellectual debate free of any censorship or retaliation. Central to academic freedom is that the political, religious, or philosophical beliefs of others, including politicians, administrators and members of the public shall not be imposed on students or faculty.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003ECalifornia Scholars for Academic Freedom call on you rescind the link to the Google form and refuse to use any data collected through that mechanism as the grounds for disciplinary measures against faculty and students.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EOn behalf of California Scholars for Academic Freedom,\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003ESusan Slyomovics\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EDistinguished Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"mailto:ssly@anthro.ucla.edu\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Essly@anthro.ucla.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EWalid Afifi\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EUniversity of California - Santa Barbara\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EProfessor, Dept of Communication\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EDirector, Center for Middle East Studies\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003ECraig Reinarman\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EProfessor Emeritus of Sociology \u0026amp; Legal Studies\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003ERachel Carson College 338\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EUniversity of California\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003ESanta Cruz, CA 95064\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E831-459-2617\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003ESondra Hale, Professor Emerita\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003EAnthropology and Gender Studies, UCLA.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"mailto:sonhale@ucla.edu\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"text-decoration: none;\"\u003Esonhale@ucla.edu\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003E     \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cstyle\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cfont size=\"3\"\u003E\u003C!--  \/* Font Definitions *\/  @font-face  {font-family:\"Cambria Math\";  panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;  mso-font-charset:0;  mso-generic-font-family:roman;  mso-font-pitch:variable;  mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face  {font-family:Calibri;  panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;  mso-font-charset:0;  mso-generic-font-family:swiss;  mso-font-pitch:variable;  mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}  \/* Style Definitions *\/  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal  {mso-style-unhide:no;  mso-style-qformat:yes;  mso-style-parent:\"\";  margin:0in;  margin-bottom:.0001pt;  mso-pagination:widow-orphan;  font-size:12.0pt;  font-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;  mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;  mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;  mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;  mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;  mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;  mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} p.MsoHeader, li.MsoHeader, div.MsoHeader  {mso-style-priority:99;  mso-style-link:\"Header Char\";  margin:0in;  margin-bottom:.0001pt;  mso-pagination:widow-orphan;  tab-stops:center 3.25in right 6.5in;  font-size:12.0pt;  font-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;  mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;  mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;  mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;  mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;  mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;  mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink  {mso-style-priority:99;  color:blue;  text-decoration:underline;  text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed  {mso-style-noshow:yes;  mso-style-priority:99;  color:#954F72;  mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;  text-decoration:underline;  text-underline:single;} p  {mso-style-priority:99;  mso-margin-top-alt:auto;  margin-right:0in;  mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;  margin-left:0in;  mso-pagination:widow-orphan;  font-size:12.0pt;  font-family:\"Times New Roman\",serif;  mso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";  mso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";  mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} span.HeaderChar  {mso-style-name:\"Header Char\";  mso-style-priority:99;  mso-style-unhide:no;  mso-style-locked:yes;  mso-style-link:Header;} .MsoChpDefault  {mso-style-type:export-only;  mso-default-props:yes;  font-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;  mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;  mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;  mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;  mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;  mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;  mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;  mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}size:8.5in 11.0in;  margin:1.0in .75in 1.0in .75in;  mso-header-margin:.5in;  mso-footer-margin:.5in;  mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1  {page:WordSection1;}\u003C\/font\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/style\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/2313356488874336228\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2020\/02\/faculty-letter-opposing-request-that.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/2313356488874336228"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/2313356488874336228"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2020\/02\/faculty-letter-opposing-request-that.html","title":"Faculty Letter Opposing Request that UCSC Undergrads Inform on Disruptors"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-rjYQu_euliQ\/XlS3xjeZzEI\/AAAAAAAAEUE\/iBbK1ycG6FcQ2Kdg2d_ivBOFiNcrvteqwCNcBGAsYHQ\/s72-c\/Informant%2BIntercept%2Bheader.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-1801225648578272564"},"published":{"$t":"2019-05-15T10:50:00.001-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-05-15T12:51:13.584-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Humanities"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Quantification"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"STEM"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UCSB"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Troubles with Numerical Culture"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-Pdm0slasyVQ\/XNxLVEo2hWI\/AAAAAAAAD7g\/ieADO7D1EvIPMrgmTVoClCqqm6gA-K00wCLcBGAs\/s1600\/Disquant%2BBanner%2BOldVersion5.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1110\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"221\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-Pdm0slasyVQ\/XNxLVEo2hWI\/AAAAAAAAD7g\/ieADO7D1EvIPMrgmTVoClCqqm6gA-K00wCLcBGAs\/s320\/Disquant%2BBanner%2BOldVersion5.png\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThis is the first section of the talk I'll give at \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/disquantified.org\/\"\u003EDisquantified: Higher Education in the Age of Metrics\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E,\u0026nbsp; \u003Ci\u003EMay 16th, 1 pm, Loma Peloma at UCSB.\u0026nbsp; We're headed towards conceptual and policy fixes for the widespread misuse of metrics and for the sidelining of qualitative knowledge. \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere’s no intrinsic conflict between language and the numerical. But we do have a profoundly embedded cultural misinterpretation of their relation.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis year brings the 60th anniversary of CP Snow’s famous Two Cultures lecture.\u0026nbsp; Unfortunately, it still reflects the public understanding of the divisions of human knowledge.\u0026nbsp; Speaking in 1959, Sir Charles classed scientists as people with the future in their bones, and “literary intellectuals” as “natural Luddites,” people who are too focused on the price of progress to make any progress themselves.\u0026nbsp; This idea of literary intellectuals as critics rather than creatives carries on today.\u0026nbsp; Some of us have tried to get rid of the label – via the critique of critique for example—but so far this has reinforced it.\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn higher education, it would seem that we would have solved this two-culture division long ago. Liberal arts education is all about general learning and creating competencies in multiple domains.\u0026nbsp; Literacy and numeracy would seem naturally to go together. Every humanities major would, in a normal world, graduate with the ability to use basic numerical techniques.\u0026nbsp; French majors would know Stata or r for statistics, or the basics of Python or Java. Why not, since the world isn’t divided into two cultures such that we live in only in one of them?\u0026nbsp; Similarly, every science major could interpret complex language and have competency in at least one foreign language.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; In many European countries, a version of these “two culture” competences are assumed to be the outcome of a high school diploma.\u0026nbsp; In the US, the full term has always been “liberal arts and sciences.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere’s another Sputnik-era assumption to remember.\u0026nbsp; Liberal arts education was to be available at every type of college or university across the country.\u0026nbsp; This is a basic principle of Morrill Act land-grant legislation.\u0026nbsp; Full arts, sciences, and applied curricula\u0026nbsp; would not be limited to flagships: if you lived in central Wisconsin and couldn’t afford to move to Madison—or didn’t want to—you could get a generally equivalent\u0026nbsp; quality of liberal education at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.\u0026nbsp; You could study biology in order to apply to medical school like your Madison counterparts. And you could at the same time become proficient in German or Spanish or Arabic, depending on your interests.\u0026nbsp; You could flip it around and study Arabic to join the foreign service while learning biology to better understand how the world fits together.\u0026nbsp; Having linguistic mobility and scientific competency were to be hallmarks of the educated person in the modern post-war world. And that is to say nothing of the many practical but nonmonetary benefits of having, say, physicians who speak a second language, and negotiators who understand ecology.\u0026nbsp; There was a powerful egalitarian assumption in the US university system—education quality would be spread widely in the student population, to reflect the wide distribution of human intelligence, and society’s complex needs.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis egalitarian assumption was largely honoured in the breach. That began to change through social and political pressures that came from outside universities and inspired students and some faculty within them.\u0026nbsp; I’m referring to the Black civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the anti-war movement, for starters. Liberal arts and sciences learned that they either connect to and study sociocultural and political movements or they do not correctly prepare students to live in their world as it actually is.\u0026nbsp; Isolated liberal arts, including historical study,\u0026nbsp; also produce flawed research.\u0026nbsp; So public universities were to avoid two false dualisms: the false dualism between numerical and language\/ image-based forms of knowledge, and the false dualism between academic and social knowledge (or between “validated” and “standpoint” knowledge).\u0026nbsp; If universities couldn’t (or shouldn’t) integrate social groups, they could (and should) integrate heterogeneous knowledges across their multiplicity.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETwo-cultures university education isn’t a luxury. It’s more like the base model of a degree to which people devote an entire four years of their lives – or five or six.\u0026nbsp; If a country wants to be a leading knowledge society, as the US claims it is, it needs in principle to create mass quantities of creative workers, people who also have intellectual autonomy and are capable of both conceptual and political movement.\u0026nbsp; I think of these as the elements that allow a graduate of any liberal arts or science major to start, pursue, and successfully complete a knowledge project.\u0026nbsp; My basic list has 14 steps.\u0026nbsp; (Slide mercifully omitted)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI’d propose this as a non-numerical framework for analyzing college educational quality. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA country that is serious about language and the numerical, would identify monetary but especially the nonmonetary or intellectual benefits that it wants from its colleges and universities, and then funds and structure those colleges accordingly.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo how are we doing with this?\u0026nbsp; Right now, not well . . . .\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/1801225648578272564\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/05\/troubles-with-numerical-culture.html#comment-form","title":"6 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/1801225648578272564"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/1801225648578272564"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/05\/troubles-with-numerical-culture.html","title":"Troubles with Numerical Culture"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-Pdm0slasyVQ\/XNxLVEo2hWI\/AAAAAAAAD7g\/ieADO7D1EvIPMrgmTVoClCqqm6gA-K00wCLcBGAs\/s72-c\/Disquant%2BBanner%2BOldVersion5.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"6"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-6713606305631565206"},"published":{"$t":"2019-05-07T09:31:00.001-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-07-17T07:25:18.594-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Budget"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"democratic university"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"guest post"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Humanities"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Public Funding"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Research"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"STEM"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Brave New STEM University; Or, the Myth of Student Demand"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-wb1PnrtJnLg\/XNGr8cmAd2I\/AAAAAAAAD7A\/sSGBYKVxVtMc3QtGWlJOksJtT_S5DVjBQCLcBGAs\/s1600\/UWashingtonSeattleCherries.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"626\" data-original-width=\"1024\" height=\"195\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-wb1PnrtJnLg\/XNGr8cmAd2I\/AAAAAAAAD7A\/sSGBYKVxVtMc3QtGWlJOksJtT_S5DVjBQCLcBGAs\/s320\/UWashingtonSeattleCherries.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ci\u003Eby Eva Cherniavsky, Andrew R. Hilen Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of Washington at Seattle\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEarlier this year, the Seattle \u003Ci\u003ETimes\u003C\/i\u003E ran an \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/as-stem-majors-soar-at-uw-interest-in-humanities-shrinks-a-potentially-costly-loss\/\"\u003Eexcellent piece on the decline of the humanities \u003C\/a\u003Eat the University of Washington (UW) and nationwide. Katherine Long, a veteran education reporter, got crucial elements of this topic absolutely right. Her piece began, “You won’t find a single expert on the history of the American Revolution or the Civil War at the University of Washington anymore.”\u0026nbsp; She goes on to make an unusual connection: cutting the humanities hurts student learning and the university’s budget.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ETo its credit, Long’s article carefully observes both the intellectual and economic consequences of shrinking humanities departments. She notes that, historically, the humanities have effectively taught large numbers of students at relatively low cost, generating credit hours and revenue that was used to subsidize teaching and research in the high-cost STEM fields.\u0026nbsp; (There, as we know, faculty routinely require not only higher salaries, but laboratories, professional staff to run them, and students to work in them.\u0026nbsp; Thus a single STEM faculty hire can easily run into the millions.)\u0026nbsp; Shrinking humanities enrollments (indeed, more broadly, the shrinkage in what is now openly referred to at UW as the “non-STEM” fields) thus seriously exacerbates the budgetary crisis produced by the decades-long withdrawal of public funding.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOn the other hand, Long frames the humanities’ intellectual contributions in highly conventional terms: “Academics worry that the nation would be impoverished—both culturally and intellectually—if only an elite few understand the arc of American history, know how to find meaning in poetry, or can discuss the ideas of the great philosophers.”\u0026nbsp; This kind of formulation narrowly aligns the humanities with cultural tradition, and thereby, no doubt unwittingly, reproduces precisely the argument for its irrelevance as a relatively arcane body of knowledge that should perhaps be archived but that does not require ongoing forms of study and engagement.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstead, we might readily substitute a more robust and informed articulation of the value of culture-focused fields. We could talk, for example, about the importance of fields that think power, identity, and rhetoric at a moment of simmering civil war, or we might emphasize that an understanding of modernity and the historical emergence of modern democratic forms is vital at a moment where democratic governance appears in crisis.\u0026nbsp; The absence of this deeper understanding of humanities knowledge has contributed to the humanities apparent decline.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe day of its publication, Long’s article circulated on the UW-AAUP list server.\u0026nbsp; The discussion that ensued moved between posts that asserted the regrettable inevitability of humanities decline, given plummeting student demand, and others that sought to make the case for the non-STEM fields, though largely based on asserting the value of non-STEM knowledge to technological and scientific endeavors (e.g. how the insights of anthropology are important to the development of artificial intelligence).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt’s worth noting that this was a relatively short-lived, low-energy discussion, especially when compared, for example, to the bounty of thoughtful posts on another recent topic, ownership of on-line course content.\u0026nbsp; But there is a relatively straightforward institutional\/legal fix to the latter problem (demand faculty ownership of course content), which, moreover, also affects faculty in high-value STEM fields.\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;The fate of the non-STEM fields, by contrast, appears already given – a ‘fact’ to be explicated, rather than a policy to be contested.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe debate reproduced one of the major shortcomings of the Seattle \u003Ci\u003ETimes\u003C\/i\u003E article: discussing “student demand” as a cause, rather than effect. It assumed, in other words, that students’ choice of majors is based on their autonomous determination of their best interest, and thus sits outside the purview of what the institution directs and regulates.\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;This conviction resurfaced a few weeks later in another UW-AAUP list server thread, this time in response to a faculty member reporting that several of her non-STEM students were asking for references so they could transfer to other universities, an aspiration which (she noted) they all attributed to the oppressively STEM-focused culture of UW.\u0026nbsp; The discussion which followed this post consisted largely of testimonials; faculty cited conversations with students to suggest how deeply they appreciated both the humanities curriculum and a humanities pedagogy historically centered on smaller, intensive, discussion-focused classes. Someone needs to gather these stories and convey them to the administration, several posters suggested – as though, confronted with the documentary evidence of \u003Ci\u003Eactual \u003C\/i\u003Estudent preference, the university would rethink its distribution of resources.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESeriously?\u0026nbsp; It seems to me that anyone who considers this for more than ten minutes has to recognize that “student demand” is a construct: it is the product of a pervasive, cross-institutional pedagogy in social and educational value in which students are immersed from (at least) primary school onward.\u0026nbsp; If students are demanding STEM in record numbers, this is a because they have been systematically invited to embrace a number of interlocking beliefs: that\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Col\u003E\u003Cli\u003ESTEM fields matter to the welfare and future of human societies more than other fields -- that social problems respond best to technocratic solutions;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003Ecollege is a course of career training;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003Ecollege is an investment that ought to be maximized in order to yield the highest possible return in the form of lifelong higher income;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ESTEM fields represent areas of continuing high-growth, recession-proof employment.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ol\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E“Student demand” is a fact insofar as it reproduces these assumptions, which are already endemic to the privatized, market-driven university.\u0026nbsp; Other forms of “student demand” (for example, demands for a more racially and ethnically diverse faculty that better reflects regional and national demographics) are routinely ignored.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe university is by no means the only social institution to promulgate these neoliberal assumptions, but it is among the most important.\u0026nbsp; Certainly, the notion that the university is merely changing to “respond” to STEM-focused student demand is absurd, since the university, increasingly beholden to private philanthropy (vastly skewed toward STEM initiatives) and increasingly reliant on tuition dollars (and the model of education as investment that normalizes rising tuition costs)\u0026nbsp; has been a key purveyor of these views.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe absurdity of the “student demand” rationale becomes apparent, as well, as soon as we recall that the starving of the humanities (and other non-STEM fields) began long before the number of majors began to plummet. The humanities, but also many of the social sciences, have been bleeding tenure lines, compelled to rely on lecturers (who are not defined as researchers) and, worse still, part-time lecturers for decades, since long before the 2008 recession or the rise in STEM enrollments.\u0026nbsp; The story of the humanities begins with the rule of austerity, not with declining demand.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI would also argue that the withdrawal of resources from humanities fields has hampered to a greater or lesser extent the ability of their faculty to build the kind of cutting edge programs and curricula that can most successfully compete for student interest.\u0026nbsp; This has certainly been true in my own English department, where retirements have vastly outpaced hires.\u0026nbsp; Several years of an outright hiring freeze, followed by the acquisition of a single line when we made a compelling curricular case for three or four, have made it virtually impossible to reflect at the curricular level many of the most important and compelling developments in the field. And again, this is happening during years when majors were at an all-time high.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn short, the humanities and allied fields are not “dying” a “natural” (market-determined) death, but have been systematically murdered – starved of resources and plundered of the credit hours they generate.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHere we come to the final missing piece in this “decline of the humanities” story:\u0026nbsp; the relatively lower earnings of non-STEM majors.\u0026nbsp; This is invoked as one of the reasons for shifting “student demand.” But as Chris Newfield has shown, it is not that the skills these graduates bring are not valued in the marketplace, but rather that their possessors are perceived as interchangeable and thus easily replaceable. There is no need for higher pay when there is always someone else to fill the job (\u003Ci\u003EUnmaking the Public University\u003C\/i\u003E, chapter 8).\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut what happens when years of downsizing non-STEM graduates means that the glut vanishes – when employers have to compete for workers proficient in, say, critical analysis, writing, or multi-cultural literacy?\u0026nbsp; It will not be possible simply to reboot the myriad departments that are now being cut to the bone – and beyond.\u0026nbsp; The damage being done is irreversible.\u0026nbsp; PhDs in the field are increasingly moving into community college positions or alt-ac careers, even as humanities graduate programs across the country are slashing ever further the number of students admitted. There will be no way back from this devastation when market demand picks up.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe idea of a university organized around market (mislabeled “student”) demand is radically unsustainable.\u0026nbsp; It is unsustainable because, in shrinking the humanities, the university cannibalizes its own budgetary life support (as Long's article makes vivid).\u0026nbsp; But it is, unsustainable, too, because one cannot simply eviscerate and then resurrect departments and programs according to the inevitably shifting and fundamentally short-term calculations of the market.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn this moment, the resistance to the increasing privatization of the public university has taken the form of the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/04\/why-elizabeth-warrens-free-college-plan.html\"\u003Edemand for free tuition\u003C\/a\u003E. This demand is fundamental to any effort at reclaiming public higher education.\u0026nbsp; But it is not a sufficient demand.\u0026nbsp; It must be linked to a broader recognition that market forces cannot organize the university – and that if this model becomes fully and finally entrenched, what we will have is not a university at all, but a high-priced career training center for the elite.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIf this is permitted to occur, I predict we will lose both the battle for free tuition and the battle for the “non-STEM” fields.\u0026nbsp; The fate of the humanities is profoundly linked to the fate of public higher education.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6713606305631565206\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/05\/brave-new-stem-university-or-myth-of.html#comment-form","title":"9 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/6713606305631565206"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/6713606305631565206"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/05\/brave-new-stem-university-or-myth-of.html","title":"Brave New STEM University; Or, the Myth of Student Demand"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-wb1PnrtJnLg\/XNGr8cmAd2I\/AAAAAAAAD7A\/sSGBYKVxVtMc3QtGWlJOksJtT_S5DVjBQCLcBGAs\/s72-c\/UWashingtonSeattleCherries.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"9"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-6810591418097810304"},"published":{"$t":"2019-04-09T08:52:00.002-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-04-10T07:09:09.696-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Admin Responses"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Administrative Overreach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Future University"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Governance"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Public Funding"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Shared Governance"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Crisis of Higher Ed Realpolitik: a Visit to Connecticut"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-1gceZUHPIkc\/XKqwryTA7tI\/AAAAAAAAD3o\/17yp-KszIckrX2O5zZetL73UImVb4eMAwCEwYBhgL\/s1600\/040519%2B0005%2B01a%2BPlanning%2BCommittee%2Bselfie%2B00%2B%25281%2529.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-top: .5em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1226\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"245\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-1gceZUHPIkc\/XKqwryTA7tI\/AAAAAAAAD3o\/17yp-KszIckrX2O5zZetL73UImVb4eMAwCEwYBhgL\/s320\/040519%2B0005%2B01a%2BPlanning%2BCommittee%2Bselfie%2B00%2B%25281%2529.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EYou never know exactly where contradictory visions of higher ed are going to have an edifying head-on collision.\u0026nbsp; There was one last week in New Britain, Connecticut, where I had gone to speak at the annual meeting on shared\u0026nbsp; governance and student success of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system. It was organized by the wonderful program committee in the photo at left (photo thanks to Wanda Warshauer).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe overriding issue was the CSCU president's proposed consolidation of the state's community colleges into one college (with three regions, three presidents, twelve campus \"CEOs\" etc), a plan that continues to roil the system in spite of having been critiqued last year by the regional accreditor.\u0026nbsp; Meanwhile, in the morning, I called for a massive expansion of higher ed's social benefits, which I said would involve state buyouts of tuition and the funding of many more tenure-track instructors as well as more widely distributed research. \u0026nbsp; At lunch, Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), of the\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-features\/jahana-hayes-congress-interview-797222\/\"\u003E first-year congressional cohort that includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar\u003C\/a\u003E, gave an excellent twelve-minute summation of the social power of education.\u0026nbsp; The question is, she said, were your students \"important enough to you for you to stand in intercession until they could stand on their own\" (\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XbZ_a7v9eqc\u0026amp;t=24s\"\u003E11\" here\u003C\/a\u003E).\u0026nbsp; How do we free education from its current policy shackles? This is one of the great questions of our time. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELet's go in the order of the day.\u0026nbsp; At 9 am, my lecture argued that higher ed is undermining itself by focusing on only the most familiar fraction of its value, individual wage benefits.\u0026nbsp; Policy discourse leaves most of the story blank.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/--QFcrl8zWPc\/XKtojhIu7qI\/AAAAAAAAD30\/wfm6HP8XTBY9zI_RPgGg4XXJVqzeWoSOwCLcBGAs\/s1600\/PecuniaryBenefits%2B2x2.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"760\" data-original-width=\"1598\" height=\"291\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/--QFcrl8zWPc\/XKtojhIu7qI\/AAAAAAAAD30\/wfm6HP8XTBY9zI_RPgGg4XXJVqzeWoSOwCLcBGAs\/s400\/PecuniaryBenefits%2B2x2.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EWhat's missing are the \"external\" or public pecuniary \/ monetary benefits (upper right quadrant), and all the non-pecuniary or non-market benefits, which are themselves more than half the total.\u0026nbsp; The focus on job training and wages by major is miseducating the public about what integrative higher learning really does.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe next hour featured a student panel that proved the point about non-monetary effects. Five students of varying ages described their non-traditional journeys to graduation over the kind of obstacles that our anti-social public policies have made all too common. The family of one speaker, who'd wanted to be a computer engineer, lost home and work in the 2008 crash when he was in the 7th grade.\u0026nbsp; The family spent years living in by-the-week motels as they went from city to city and state to state looking for permanent jobs. Meanwhile, their son never attended formal school again, until a GED program and various CSCU instructors helped him back into the system.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOn the same panel a 53- year-old single mother said that after years of working she went back because \"I got tired of other people controlling my livelihood. I knew that I could do more, be more.\u0026nbsp; I wanted to help people, and knew that I could be of greater help.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThree other speakers related their own struggles for education. The common issue: higher ed is about knowledge, capability, personal development.\u0026nbsp; It addresses a large and varying set of \u003Ci\u003Enon\u003C\/i\u003E-monetary issues.\u0026nbsp; Better pay plays an accepted but minor part, and on this panel was not central enough to mention.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI noted that none of these working-class students at working-class colleges mentioned that pecuniary metric du jour, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.equality-of-opportunity.org\/papers\/coll_mrc_paper.pdf\"\u003Eupward mobility\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp; They focused on\u0026nbsp; \u003Ci\u003EBildung\u003C\/i\u003E, a word nobody used. It is mass \u003Ci\u003EBildung\u003C\/i\u003E: arguably \u003Ci\u003Ethe \u003C\/i\u003Ecore higher ed goal is \u003Ci\u003EBildung\u003C\/i\u003E for all.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis brought us to Rep. Jahana Hayes. Her pre-Congress career was as a teacher, one who started as a teenage mom and then as a community college student who worked three jobs before graduating from Southern Connecticut State College, who then taught for years before becoming \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/147812318\"\u003EConnecticut Teacher of the Year \u003C\/a\u003Eand then \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/neatoday.org\/2016\/04\/28\/2016-teacher-of-the-year\/\"\u003E2016 National Teacher of the Year,\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/a\u003Eafter which she ran for Congress, thinking it was a test run to prepare the ground for somebody else to run and win in 2020.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHer talk was anchored in a deep personal sense of the power of teachers to \u003Ci\u003Enegate\u003C\/i\u003E their students' self-worth with dismissive talk or treatment--or to make it possible for them to fully inhabit the world.\u0026nbsp; I came from a place, she said, where we were told in a range of ways you are nothing, your community is bad, your people have no value.\u0026nbsp; \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XbZ_a7v9eqc\u0026amp;t=24s\"\u003EShe said,\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EI have to remind people at every turn: nobody \u003Ci\u003Echooses\u003C\/i\u003E to struggle. . . Our responsibility as leaders, as the adults, as the community is to hold people up until they can stand on their own, and then send them off so they can pull someone behind them. . . That's what happened in my life, when people stepped in. . . . \u003C\/blockquote\u003EShe said, \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EEverything I learned about school, I learned at school.\u0026nbsp; We have so many people who touch down on campuses like this, and for the first time have real conversations, with fidelity, about controlling the narrative about their education.\u0026nbsp; Just because they're not having those conversations at home doesn't mean their families don't care about them. Maybe it means, just maybe, that they don't have the ability or the capacity to control those conversations.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EI grew up in a family where my grandmother could not have been more loving, could not have been more giving, could not have been more invested in my success.\u0026nbsp; But she didn't know how to translate that level of investment, that level of commitment, that love she had for me, into a conversation that was academic. So as a teacher, I always stood on the premise that it's not kids' responsibility to learn different, it's my responsibility to teach different. And I think that if we always lead with that--that everybody has value, that everybody has a gift, that everybody gets to be here, and should have access,\u003C\/blockquote\u003Eand then she paused because she was on the verge of tears. So was I.\u0026nbsp; The whole room started to applaud. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EShe said,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003Eit's amazing how raw this is for me, because. . . there were so many people, when I was a high school dropout, or I was a teenage mom, or I was a community college student, who had just given up on me and written me off. And I tell you, we can't write people off.\u0026nbsp; We can't decide that they're \u003Ci\u003Edone\u003C\/i\u003E. What we have to do is figure out how to put them back on track, and get them in the pipeline, and on the road to success and that road is going to look different for everybody.\u0026nbsp; There are different ways of doing and being. \u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EAnd once you are graced with--when I started this journey I did it because I was the beneficiary of so much undeserved grace. Now I have a responsibility--I have a responsibility to use my voice, to use my platform, to use my experiences, to use my struggle, to help insure that somebody, even if it's one person, does not have to endure the same things. To help change hearts and minds, so that the people on the other side, who have already made up their minds, they have an opinion about who certain groups are, what certain groups do, how certain groups feel--about how people act--to help them change that opinion. . . . \u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EIn a conference the other day . . . I had to remind people that I was a SNAP beneficiary--not because I didn't want to work, but because I was underemployed, working three jobs, going to college full time. So\u0026nbsp; when you think about someone receiving SNAP benefits, I hope that you now begin to think that that person can become a Congresswoman. There are so many people in this room, there are so many people on this campus, there are so many people in this community, who are in the journey.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EJahana Hayes would not deny education as job benefits, even as that was subsumed by education as a journey whose supreme value she had proved.\u0026nbsp; I was struck by her fully democratized idea of value--\"everybody has a gift\"--that cannot be dealt with through standardization, which is, as an administrative reflex, itself bound up with marginalization.\u0026nbsp; Thus we get to her principle of \"teach different.\" And that is essentially what every talk I heard all day was doing.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn the afternoon, I went to the panel on \"Creating a Family-Friendly Campus,\" with presentations about basic issues like easily accessible lactation rooms and free child care by Meredith Sinclair,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ctmirror.org\/2019\/01\/02\/lamont-names-bye-lead-office-early-childhood\/\"\u003EState Senator Beth Bye\u003C\/a\u003E, and Fiona Pearson, who previewed arguments from her forthcoming book, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Back-School-Student-Transforming-American\/dp\/1978801882\/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fiona+pearson\u0026amp;qid=1554744967\u0026amp;s=gateway\u0026amp;sr=8-1\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EBack in School.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere was also \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/padlet.com\/lmccarthy21\/egz40f8d4l3c\"\u003ELaura McCarthy's presentation\u003C\/a\u003E on transition programs for what are sometimes called at-risk students.\u0026nbsp; The programs initially had low retention and completion rates. The instructors did a reoganization based on their immersive experience, and these rates got much better.\u0026nbsp; Here are some principles:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-YePa0aXGT7g\/XKuJP1cUCFI\/AAAAAAAAD4A\/8fupSvJ08FAx3E-hV8sLnXT6im4lXJRjQCLcBGAs\/s1600\/Conn%2BProgram%2BRedesign%2BLaura%2BMcCarthy%2B0419.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"851\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"324\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-YePa0aXGT7g\/XKuJP1cUCFI\/AAAAAAAAD4A\/8fupSvJ08FAx3E-hV8sLnXT6im4lXJRjQCLcBGAs\/s400\/Conn%2BProgram%2BRedesign%2BLaura%2BMcCarthy%2B0419.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EFree -- hmm, interesting idea. In conjunction with the others, which are all Hayes Principles. Mass Bildung.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"\u003EHere's what we the instructional masses looks like--with Wanda again playing Waldo, and CCSU president Toro on the left.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-hdd7hNt-wAg\/XKuKJ0gQlpI\/AAAAAAAAD4Q\/3_XRXYctmjk2QA573TaO37kRTdhL_gNYgCLcBGAs\/s1600\/040519%2B0012%2B01%2BFun%2Bselfie%2Bgroup%2Bpic%2Bwith%2BCongresswoman%2BJH%2BPres%2BToro%2Band%2BConf%2Battendees.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1229\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"468\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-hdd7hNt-wAg\/XKuKJ0gQlpI\/AAAAAAAAD4Q\/3_XRXYctmjk2QA573TaO37kRTdhL_gNYgCLcBGAs\/s400\/040519%2B0012%2B01%2BFun%2Bselfie%2Bgroup%2Bpic%2Bwith%2BCongresswoman%2BJH%2BPres%2BToro%2Band%2BConf%2Battendees.jpg\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EAnd there was also the look on Jahana Hayes's face when I said, \"at some point we'll be needing you back in education.\"\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-OSlpA_nMl-0\/XKuK1FIyyVI\/AAAAAAAAD4c\/Xi9W_JDgtPAG3nH25xOOb5ZoY8RLcbFaACLcBGAs\/s1600\/040519%2B0016%2B06%2BCongresswoman%2BJH%2Bw%2Bkeynote%2BNewfield*.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"1091\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-OSlpA_nMl-0\/XKuK1FIyyVI\/AAAAAAAAD4c\/Xi9W_JDgtPAG3nH25xOOb5ZoY8RLcbFaACLcBGAs\/s400\/040519%2B0016%2B06%2BCongresswoman%2BJH%2Bw%2Bkeynote%2BNewfield*.jpg\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\"I do miss it,\" she laughed.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI said she showed why her crew could change the frame in Congress: they could end the hollowing out of social structures precisely by invoking the capabilities of absolutely everyone.\u0026nbsp; It's the Great Refusal of racist and related social stigmas on which neoliberalism depends. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt the end of the day, the Faculty Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents had a session on the issue overhanging the day--the president's CC consolidation.\u0026nbsp; It seems to have started with the claim that the consolidation could save tens of millions of dollars on a half-billion or so of a system operating budget.\u0026nbsp; It led, however, with the motto of \"Students First,\" arguing that consolidation would allow simple student access to multiple campuses.\u0026nbsp; I mentioned above that the regional accreditor seriously challenged the proposal last year, but it is back in retooled form, with a simultaneous plan to conform all 12 campuses' curricula to a Guided Pathways template.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy own limited reading on the issue didn't explain what problem they have to which the solution is consolidation + Guided Pathways.\u0026nbsp; One good newspaper overview is \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ctmirror.org\/2019\/03\/07\/accreditation-years-away-but-cscu-presses-forward-with-college-consolidation\/\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp; A faculty petition with concise opposing arguments is \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1X5DjWguOAq3OVcv78YDD0gA6m-yc0ZWM\/view\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp; The systemwide update document is \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.ct.edu\/files\/pdfs\/CSCU%20Students%20First%20Update%20for%20NECHE%20April%202019.pdf\"\u003Ehere, \u003C\/a\u003Ewhere a slide summary starts on p 39; a key slide at 47 claims the system must be consolidated to solve a student registration process with 35 separate steps.\u0026nbsp; (One faculty member told me the slide is \"ridiculous\"; another said, \"even if the 35 steps are real, students to whom it would apply constituted 1.12 percent of the student body in Fall 2018\" . . . with an average of 1.3 percent.)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe consolidation uses the faculty's language of \"student success,\" but otherwise is a managerial initiative that seemed unrelated to the educational issues we were discussing.\u0026nbsp; It felt to me like a legacy project.\u0026nbsp; The system president who's championing the plan, Mark E. Ojakian, was the previous governor's Chief of Staff when, in 2011, he was assigned to create the current CSCU system by pushing the community colleges into a common structure with the four-year campuses. No one had much good to say about the results then--nor could anyone point me to evidence of financial savings.\u0026nbsp; That same governor later appointed Ojakian to be the president of the system he'd created, and now he's back for a second rearrangement of the arms and legs of his creature.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI spoke to him briefly at the start of the day: he was pleasant but uninvolved, and disappeared quickly (unlike the chair of the Board of Regents, who stuck around and chatted with me and various attendees).\u0026nbsp; The consolidation was not developed in consultation with faculty and staff on the campuses.\u0026nbsp; Hence the head-on collision between unrelated models of problems and solutions coming from frontline people on the one hand and a politically-wired system office on the other.\u0026nbsp; The results are predictable: demoralization and confusion, and a low chance of meaningful results.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt also seems like an example of the sort of pragmatism that finds its problems under the proverbial lamppost, and so ignores the bigger problems in the shadows.\u0026nbsp; It doesn't actually seem pragmatic to me.\u0026nbsp; So I used my talk to insist that debates in higher ed today were not between realism and idealism, but between two kinds of realism.\u0026nbsp; The dominant one is a \u003Ci\u003Erealpolitik\u003C\/i\u003E, whose opening move is always to cast its opposition as well-intentioned but naive about real-world rules.\u0026nbsp; But what this move is really trying to forestall is actualy a competing realism.\u0026nbsp; I called this \"public realism\" (still fussing with terrminology).\u0026nbsp; Public realism is much more ambitious than realpolitik, wanting among other things adequate funding for \u003Ci\u003Eall\u003C\/i\u003E of higher ed's nonpecuniary effects, which means high quality instruction and research at what are now thousands of underfunded open access institutions much like the ones Ojakian wants to consolidate.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EConsolidation is a realpolitik distraction from the real issue, which is that Connecticut, though the No. 1 richest state by our preferred funding metric of personal income, has cut its funding for its CCs by nearly 12 percent just in the last four years.\u0026nbsp; The longer trend is dismal: though Connecticut appropriations are above national averages, they are still 19 percent below their 2008 levels, while tuition is 41 percent higher.\u0026nbsp; Here's the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/profile\/sheeo1303#!\/vizhome\/SHEFInteractiveData2017\/About?publish=yes\"\u003ESHEEO wave chart\u003C\/a\u003E for CT:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-nLQofvgBvHY\/XKy869IqwaI\/AAAAAAAAD40\/-33skipi8K4h1Xvz0POYWbODHD7JGXJZgCLcBGAs\/s1600\/ConnecticutWaveChart%2BSHEEO%2B1992-2017.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"917\" data-original-width=\"1600\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-nLQofvgBvHY\/XKy869IqwaI\/AAAAAAAAD40\/-33skipi8K4h1Xvz0POYWbODHD7JGXJZgCLcBGAs\/s400\/ConnecticutWaveChart%2BSHEEO%2B1992-2017.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EA group of faculty described this root problem in \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ctmirror.org\/category\/ct-viewpoints\/troubling-numbers-the-cost-of-saving\/\"\u003Ean editorial that should be read in full\u003C\/a\u003E:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EIn an historical context, the apparent fiscal crisis that precipitated  the [Board of Regents’] Students First plan grew out of years of declining levels of  state support for higher education that became especially acute in the  aftermath of the 2008-2009 economic crisis. The state’s eroding  budgetary condition imposed fiscal austerity on the system that  simultaneously resulted in increases in students’ costs\/debts and  cutbacks in student services and opportunities.\u0026nbsp; Full time professors  were replaced by adjuncts; retiring academic advisors were not replaced;  hours of operation were reduced.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EEducational quality declines when capacity declines: it's \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/Research-Universities-Need-to\/246070\"\u003Erealpolitik's own idealism \u003C\/a\u003Eto think otherwise.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Connecticut system's related root problem is that it's not affordable.\u0026nbsp; From the California vantage, Connecticut charges very high tuition for community college- \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.collegetuitioncompare.com\/compare\/tables\/?state=CT\"\u003Eover $4400 a year.\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp; (True, it is half the tuition charged by community college in New York State, but I'm sure we can agree that $10,000 a year for first-rung local college is insane.)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOjakian might thus have been expected to focus on two things as president: lowering tuition and raising state allocations in wealthy Connecticut. \u0026nbsp; (He could also have taken care of student bureaucratic hassles the old-fashioned way, by quietly instituting a common application form, which I'm told by faculty and students was promised when he formed the system back in 2011.) But these two issuse are not the leadership's focus.\u0026nbsp; The day's last session was dominated by faculty distress at a process that they feel is headed in the wrong direction in part because they have been excluded from it. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI'd said that we had been avoiding the effort to fund public colleges as public goods, which had meant the path of \"multiple revenue streams\" (aka privatization).\u0026nbsp; The key point is that none of these have\u0026nbsp; worked out as promised. I counted 12 types.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-IIw8NstVuzk\/XKudB8B-EsI\/AAAAAAAAD4o\/LFY3ydYHt7MpE7a56rUzTR9DJN_y4dJ9QCLcBGAs\/s1600\/Multiple%2BRevenue%2BStreams%2B-%2B12%2Beffects.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"926\" data-original-width=\"1590\" height=\"355\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-IIw8NstVuzk\/XKudB8B-EsI\/AAAAAAAAD4o\/LFY3ydYHt7MpE7a56rUzTR9DJN_y4dJ9QCLcBGAs\/s400\/Multiple%2BRevenue%2BStreams%2B-%2B12%2Beffects.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026nbsp;There are exceptions to the rules in the \"reality\" column, but I believe these are the general rules.\u0026nbsp; Most relevant to consoidation is the second item from the last: I mentioned UCPath as a disaster that emerges from a type top-down standardization that blocks local efficiencies and if anything increases costs while making everyone's job harder. Decentralization is often more efficient than consolidation: UC Berkeley's \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2010\/09\/bains-blow-to-berkeley.html\"\u003Efailed Operation Excellence\u003C\/a\u003E is UC's Exhibit A (see \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2016\/02\/the-new-normal-isnt-normal-it-erodes.html\"\u003ESection 3\u003C\/a\u003E for a 2016 update).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere are some things we can do to avoid these mistakes.\u0026nbsp; A simple one is policy rooted in history and evidence. Can you show that your last reorg saved a lot of money? Do you have an example of positive top-down curricular standardization?\u0026nbsp; If not, do you have a detailed plan that convinces the people actually doing the education? If you have none of these things, talk to people all over the system and try out something else.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnother is telling the truth about the damage these public-private hybrid models have already done.\u0026nbsp; It's the old Step 1 beginning: first admit you have a problem.\u0026nbsp; We have a national higher ed realpolitik, that failed.\u0026nbsp; Frontline faculty and staff have faced this. Top level admin should do the same.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe third thing we can do is a full reframing of higher ed along public good lines.\u0026nbsp; Virtually everyone I heard speak that day, from Jahana Hayes on out, already sees the transformation that would come from that. "},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6810591418097810304\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/04\/the-crisis-of-higher-ed-realpolitik.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/6810591418097810304"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/6810591418097810304"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/04\/the-crisis-of-higher-ed-realpolitik.html","title":"The Crisis of Higher Ed Realpolitik: a Visit to Connecticut"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-1gceZUHPIkc\/XKqwryTA7tI\/AAAAAAAAD3o\/17yp-KszIckrX2O5zZetL73UImVb4eMAwCEwYBhgL\/s72-c\/040519%2B0005%2B01a%2BPlanning%2BCommittee%2Bselfie%2B00%2B%25281%2529.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-7013225805560588171"},"published":{"$t":"2019-01-21T10:37:00.002-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-02-22T13:11:49.496-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"anti-racist pedagogy"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Critical University Studies"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"guest post"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"public goods"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Race"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"reparations"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"slavery"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teaching"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Universities Studying Slavery: Critical University Studies in Practice"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-etxeHzamgqc\/XEYK-rZXxPI\/AAAAAAAAD0s\/ebJImqwnxSsjk9wSQdyHWqKS6yfhm-ArACLcBGAs\/s1600\/White%2BHoues%2BSlaves%2BBuilt.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"298\" data-original-width=\"615\" height=\"155\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-etxeHzamgqc\/XEYK-rZXxPI\/AAAAAAAAD0s\/ebJImqwnxSsjk9wSQdyHWqKS6yfhm-ArACLcBGAs\/s320\/White%2BHoues%2BSlaves%2BBuilt.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EBy Vineeta Singh, Lemon Project Postdoctoral Fellow, Omohundro Institute, College of William \u0026amp; Mary.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EThis is the second in a series of talks from the MLA panel, \"Race and Critical University Studies.\" The first was \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/01\/insurgent-genealogies-poetic-and.html\"\u003E\"Insurgent Genealogies.\"\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn 2015, the University of Virginia’s “President’s Commission on Slavery and the University” established a multi-institution consortium of \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/slavery.virginia.edu\/universities-studying-slavery\/\"\u003E“Universities Studying Slavery,”\u003C\/a\u003E (USS) to allow historians to collaborate on research and share best practices for attempts at reconciling institutional histories and institutional values. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn the last three years, the consortium has grown to include 38 universities in the U.S., Canada, and Britain. It is primarily an historical rather than literary or even interdisciplinary intellectual community.\u0026nbsp; It is located squarely in the South, where the institutional reluctance and incapacity to address the already \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/silencesam.com\/uncategorized\/call-to-strike\/\"\u003Ehypervisible histories of slavery\u003C\/a\u003E and white supremacy more broadly have molded a very different \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.15767\/feministstudies.44.2.0432\"\u003E“crisis consensus” \u003C\/a\u003Ethan at the University of California and similar schools. Because of these divergent evolutions, USS work gives Critical University Studies other ways of approaching the presentism, exceptionalism, and focus on amelioration that CUS work is frequently charged with.\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAfter finishing an Ethnic Studies dissertation studying the history of U.S. higher education as it reflects and intensifies the conditions of racial capitalism, I recently began a postdoctoral fellowship with \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.wm.edu\/sites\/lemonproject\/index.php\"\u003EThe Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation.\u003C\/a\u003E This is the College of William \u0026amp; Mary’s initiative to study the university’s history with racial violence and to “rectify wrongs perpetrated against African Americans by William \u0026amp; Mary through action or inaction.” In learning with the Lemon team and other members of the USS Consortium, I have come to regard the practical and creative work of students, scholars, and activists working with such initiatives as a model for how to do a critical study of American higher education. The work is allowing us to address the color line as a central driving force in the history of U.S. higher education. It looks toward an immanent reconcilability of studies of race, racism, and racial capitalism in higher education with “critical studies about the casualization of academic labor, the privatization of the public university, and the uncertain future of U.S. higher education,” as Heather Steffen put it in the proposal for this panel.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe conflict between the study of CUS and of race might be boiled down to the hope, on the one hand, that the public research university is fundamentally a progressive good, whose expanding reach has or will index the growth of values consonant with social justice, potentially including the dismantling of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy etc.; and, on the other hand, the conviction that since the U.S. nation-state is a guarantor of white supremacist capitalism, its system of higher education, functions like all state apparatuses is a house where \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/collectiveliberation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf\"\u003E“only the most narrow parameters of change are possible and allowable.”\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn my research and in my work with the Lemon Project I have joined a generation of Black Studies, Ethnic Studies, and American Studies scholars and historians who are attempting to work through this disconnect. Like the first generation of identity knowledge workers who brought identity knowledges into some kind of institutional relationship with the academy, our labors represent a kind of reconciliation--not the end of an antagonism, but its continuation by other means. Creating new, uncomfortable, and generative proximites, this reconciliation work has less to do with the affective labor of creating friendly relations and more to do with the institutional work of creating a shared political community for the perpetrators andi targets of crimes against humanity. Or better yet, for knowledge producers, it is akin to the accounting practice of ensuring that two sets of records are in agreement. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn general, universities have tried to reckon with their racist pasts through enrollment, historical study, memorialization, and of course reconciliation. Among the most inspiring successes are enrollment initiatives tailored for black students.\u0026nbsp; For example, Rutgers and Georgetown are seeking to build recruitment relationships with descendant communities.\u0026nbsp; \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/scarletandblack.rutgers.edu\/\"\u003ERutgers University’s Scarlet and Black Project’s \u003C\/a\u003Ehistorical study puts anti-black and settler violences squarely in the center of university history rather than, as in the past, seeing them as appendages or amendments to a history of great white men and families.\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESome universities are also engaged in countercommemoration, in which they rename campus landmarks after the enslaved laborers who built them, or after black historical figures associated with campus space. This helps black students and other students of color see themselves not just as descendants of the disfranchised but as inheritors of radical traditions of resistance and study.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENotably, the Brown [University] Steering Committee was a direct result of a reparations debate. The same year Ruth Simmons became Brown’s president, conservative author David Horowitz published a full-page ad in student newspapers across the country including the Brown Daily Herald titled “Ten Ideas Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea—and Racist Too.” When the paper’s editors refused to print a retraction or relinquish the money the paper received for the ad (as student activists recommended), protestors “stole an entire day’s press run of the paper” (\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brown.edu\/Research\/Slavery_Justice\/documents\/SlaveryAndJustice.pdf\"\u003Epages 58- 59\u003C\/a\u003E). The steering committee’s final report notes that the “stolen” papers were actually returned, but also that the story of the “theft” appeared in newspapers across the country, casting the university as a poor defendant of “the free exchange of ideas” (\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brown.edu\/Research\/Slavery_Justice\/documents\/SlaveryAndJustice.pdf\"\u003Eibid\u003C\/a\u003E.) The following year, when a class-action lawsuit was brought against a cohort of private corporations built on profits from the slave trade, including FleetBoston bank, founded by the same family of brothers who endowed Brown University, and when think pieces like Harvard Law professor \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2002\/03\/31\/opinion\/litigating-the-legacy-of-slavery.html\"\u003ECharles Ogletree’s New York \u003Ci\u003ETimes\u003C\/i\u003E essay\u003C\/a\u003E warned institutions like Brown, Yale, and Harvard to brace for a series of similar suits, Brown’s president Simmons convened the steering committee, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/brown.edu\/Research\/Slavery_Justice\/documents\/SlaveryAndJustice.pdf\"\u003Ein their words\u003C\/a\u003E,“not [to] determine whether or how Brown might pay monetary reparations, nor… to forge a consensus on the reparations question. Its object, rather, was ‘to provide factual information and critical perspectives to deepen understanding’ and enrich debate on an issue that had aroused great public passion but little constructive public dialogue.”\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe most visible of this work, however, is the focus on eliciting an official university apology—ostensibly, although evidently not always, as a prelude to a commitment to material investments; administratively, of course, the investment is in rehabilitating the image of the institution. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAlthough the USS consortium’s name implies a focus on the pre-1865 period, in practice its associated initiatives have used the hypervisibility of the slavery conversation to bring attention to racial formation, racial capitalism, and racialized violence more broadly. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe initiatives frequently cite Saidiya Hartman’s formulation of the afterlives of African chattel slavery to trigger a momentary removal of the veils of commodity fetishism and fiduciary responsibility, the justification used by, for instance, Jesuit priests \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/slaveryarchive.georgetown.edu\/\"\u003Eselling 272 enslaved Americans\u003C\/a\u003E to keep Georgetown University’s doors open in 1838.\u0026nbsp; They ask, as t\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/slavery.georgetown.edu\/report\/\"\u003Ehe Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Georgetown does\u003C\/a\u003E, how this historical “lack of moral imagination—the inability to see black human beings as deserving of equal dignity” persists in the present and in planning for the future. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBy addressing the long history of the U.S. university as a crucial site in the creation and consolidation of American racial capitalism, such work overcomes the bias alleged to be at the heart of current CUS work. Partnering and collaborating with USS schools and scholars would help CUS practitioners do the same. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn doing so, Lemon-style initiatives also move against the tendency to treat the university as an exceptional site. The undergraduate class syllabi such initiatives inform connect the university’s slaveholding to its role in fomenting and maintaining Jim Crow segregation laws and norms off campus. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt William \u0026amp; Mary, student activists have further connected these conversations to the university’s ongoing use of prison labor. Their work underscores the continuity between African chattel slavery and contemporary mass incarceration and residential, educational, and occupational segregation, as well as workers’ rights and health inequity, as much on campus as off. In leveraging a crisis to create a coalition, such initiatives, mostly born of student, faculty, and community organizing, are another iteration of the kind of coalitional labor that has historically animated the fields of Ethnic Studies, Black Studies, Latinx, and Gender Studies. And they are a coalition that easily makes common cause with CUS’s wider concerns.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAmelioration, the desire to manage the effects of a crisis, rather than confronting its root causes, is important to the institutions sanctioning such initiatives. As they try to tidy up unsightly and embarrassing student protests into at least surveilable, if not exactly manageable initiatives, the frequent use of the appellation “project” (instead of center or institute) in their titles indexes an uneasy triangular relationship among an administration’s desire to be absolved of past wrongdoings, historians’ attempts to “narrow the range of permissible lies” an institution can tell about its own past, and the institution’s inability to reckon with the scale of the oppression in which it has been complicit (page 173). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYet the persistence of the scholars tasked with these efforts of memory, repentance, reconciliation, healing, and redress, speaks to their personal and collective investments in making possible another university. They also provide an intellectual community for people like \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/hgreen.people.ua.edu\/\"\u003EProfessor Hilary Green\u003C\/a\u003E, an historian working at the University of Alabama, who single-handedly researched, designed, and implemented an alternate campus tour highlighting the presence of enslaved laborers and craftsmen on campus. Green has personally given \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/hgreen.people.ua.edu\/hallowed-grounds.html\"\u003Eher Hallowed Grounds tour \u003C\/a\u003Eto over three thousand visitors and students, and last year, along with earning tenure, received funds to hire student workers to expand its reach. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGreen’s work is, frankly, a personal inspiration, and a model of the kind of reconciliation I envision for students of CUS and racial capitalism: it begins with a confrontational practice that forces students and visitors to recognize the racial violence embedded in the campus landscape.\u0026nbsp; Rather than waiting for institutional or disciplinary approval, Green has been reconciling the institution’s accounts with local common senses about the predatory relationship between the academy and communities of color. She is now also able to use university resources to further her transformative work. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis is also a core tenet of the interdisciplinary identity knowledge formations: to refuse the positioning of racial violence as an aberration in the history of the United States or of capitalism, and to place it at the center of these narratives. One effect is that the narratives have to re-articulate their own objects.\u0026nbsp; Another is that the rest of the campus so-called community builds “racial stamina”—the capacity to engage in meaningful dialogue about systemic racism. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn situating racial violence as a constitutive element of institutional histories, such projects keep the campus in a generative state of crisis.\u0026nbsp; This creates the possibility to answer the call for imaginative scholarly coalitional work..\u0026nbsp; I’m thinking in particular of Roderick Ferguson’s The Reorder of Things, which shifts our focus away from grand revolutionary narratives (or even the heroic model of grant-writing templates) and towards “the small things” that can enact critical forms of community—forms that make minoritized subjects agents rather than silent objects of knowledge. "},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/7013225805560588171\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/01\/after-apology-critical-university.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/7013225805560588171"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/7013225805560588171"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/01\/after-apology-critical-university.html","title":"Universities Studying Slavery: Critical University Studies in Practice"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-etxeHzamgqc\/XEYK-rZXxPI\/AAAAAAAAD0s\/ebJImqwnxSsjk9wSQdyHWqKS6yfhm-ArACLcBGAs\/s72-c\/White%2BHoues%2BSlaves%2BBuilt.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-1344778439194373099"},"published":{"$t":"2019-01-14T16:53:00.001-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-02-22T13:12:05.522-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"anti-racist pedagogy"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Critical University Studies"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"guest post"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"public goods"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Race"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Teaching"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Insurgent Genealogies: The Poetic and Pedagogical Praxis of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich "},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-MdYqWrFi5FA\/XD0ndIK1VxI\/AAAAAAAADzM\/uajslPH5heICt7NhQZtfY_MRC86uB6_BwCLcBGAs\/s1600\/Savonick_Figure%2B1.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"456\" data-original-width=\"825\" height=\"176\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-MdYqWrFi5FA\/XD0ndIK1VxI\/AAAAAAAADzM\/uajslPH5heICt7NhQZtfY_MRC86uB6_BwCLcBGAs\/s320\/Savonick_Figure%2B1.png\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003Eby Danica Savonick, Asst Professor of English, SUNY Courtland\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EChris here: this is the first in a series of papers delivered at an MLA Convention panel called \"Race and Critical University Studies,\" organized by Heather Steffen and me and held on 5 January 2019.\u0026nbsp; Prof. Savonick gets at a key motive behind the panel when she says below, \"Critical university studies puts a name on something that activists,  intellectuals, and scholars of African American studies, women’s  studies, and ethnic studies have been doing for decades and even  centuries.\" We are interested in helping CUS contribute to the continuation and extension of these critiques and practices.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E***\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026nbsp;My remarks today are drawn from my current manuscript project, \u003Ci\u003EInsurgent Knowledge\u003C\/i\u003E, which analyzes the literary and pedagogical praxis of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich. I’ll give a brief overview of the project and highlight one key example, then suggest some ways that this work might help us think about this panel’s question: how can critical university studies approach issues of race, racism, and racial capitalism in higher education?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhile Lorde, Jordan, Bambara, and Rich are most often studied for their literature, my project positions them as theorists of feminist and antiracist pedagogy. In 1968, at the height of the Women’s Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, and protests against the Vietnam War (and the same year that Paulo Freire was writing Pedagogy of the Oppressed) these authors were teaching down the hall from one another at Harlem’s City College, in the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) educational opportunity program and later during Open Admissions. Like the majority of educators today, they were not teaching wealthy or even middle-class students at elite universities with ample resources. Rather, they were teaching working class students of color in the nation’s first state-mandated educational opportunity program.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs educators, these authors drew on their poetic sensibilities to develop student-centered, collaborative, and consciousness-raising pedagogies that transformed their classrooms into sites of social change. They challenged students to make crucial decisions about the structure of their courses; to conduct original local research on poverty, housing, food, and education; to write and publish literature and to become teachers in their classrooms and leaders in their communities. These pedagogies were designed to navigate and contest the privatization of knowledge and power that has come to dominate educational practice, and I hope this research will help us to continue that work today.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGiven this panel’s focus on race, I want to say a little more to contexualize their educational activism amidst the racial politics surrounding CUNY in the late 1960s. Since its inception, City College has been understood as a barometer for educational democracy in the U.S. While the school had a historical mandate to educate “the children of the whole people” and had long boasted of being the “Harvard of the Proletariat,” it was not until 1965 that the SEEK program was established to address the fact that the college’s student body did not reflect the diversity of the surrounding Black and Puerto Rican Harlem community. SEEK recruited “economically and educationally disadvantaged” students and prepared them to matriculate at City College through remedial coursework.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFive years later, the college implemented a far more controversial Open Admissions policy, which expanded SEEK’s commitment to equity and access throughout the CUNY system. As \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.upress.umn.edu\/book-division\/books\/the-reorder-of-things\"\u003ERoderick Ferguson shows\u003C\/a\u003E, the initiative was met with vehement opposition and the widespread racist belief that this influx of students of color would dilute the quality of education. Mainstream media and journalism pathologized these students as “deprived, disadvantaged, former or current drug addicts, unwed mothers, ghetto residents, fatherless[ds3],” “untrained monkeys, and lions caged in a zoo[ds4].” [CJN5][ds6]And much of this dehumanizing rhetoric came from within the CUNY professoriate, especially in the humanities. Open Admissions, according to the chair of the City College English Department, is “how you kill a college.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-hWL1F_e79x0\/XD0rYEND3HI\/AAAAAAAADzY\/q5B4YxU0e8A_RMnIfEZ3v4QrO1wDLXsuwCEwYBhgL\/s1600\/Savonick_Figure%2B2.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"463\" data-original-width=\"823\" height=\"345\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-hWL1F_e79x0\/XD0rYEND3HI\/AAAAAAAADzY\/q5B4YxU0e8A_RMnIfEZ3v4QrO1wDLXsuwCEwYBhgL\/s400\/Savonick_Figure%2B2.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt a time when faculty were accusing these democratizing initiatives of killing higher education and lowering academic standards, a number of eminent writers were lining up at the door to teach in these classrooms. These teacher-poets, along with figures like Addison Gayle, Barbara Christian, David Henderson, and Mina Shaughnessy, understood that many of these students came from underfunded schools that were left out of the city’s Progressive era education reforms. They understood that students’ unpreparedness was the product of racist institutions, discrimination, underemployment, and poverty, and not individual deficiencies. Together they\u003Cbr \/\u003Eformed an insurrectionary pedagogical milieu committed to the success of working class students, first-generation students, and students of color.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt this point, I am overwhelmed by the number of stories I want to tell you. I want to tell you how Bambara was tasked with teaching a remedial summer writing course that would prepare students to assimilate into the existing curriculum, but instead she challenged them to design their own course and equipped them with the tools to reinvent the university. I want to tell you about how Lorde assigned daily journals and collaborative projects to teach students to locate their lives in relation to long histories of institutional injustice. I want to tell you about Rich’s insistence that her university did not need a new, highly exclusive MFA program but desperately needed to offer a master’s in creative teaching in order to address the nation’s devastating conditions of educational inequality.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut in the interest of time, I will focus on just one example: the praxis of publishing student writing. While these anthologies may be familiar to scholars of African American literature and women’s studies, today, I want to focus on the little-discussed fact that all of these relatively well known anthologies included student writing. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-nGr03qwH3TU\/XD0rbtgpOaI\/AAAAAAAADzk\/neGNlunPQesSumzdUjgJBrYjvLkUpkjOACEwYBhgL\/s1600\/Savonick_Figure%2B3.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"264\" data-original-width=\"468\" height=\"345\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-nGr03qwH3TU\/XD0rbtgpOaI\/AAAAAAAADzk\/neGNlunPQesSumzdUjgJBrYjvLkUpkjOACEwYBhgL\/s400\/Savonick_Figure%2B3.jpg\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EIn fact, much of the writing in these collections emerged from the courses Jordan, Lorde, and Bambara taught at Tougaloo College, City College, Rutgers Livingston, and in less formal spaces, like weekend writing workshops. Instead of submitting writing solely to be read by the instructor, they organized their courses around the production of texts that could circulate in the world beyond the classroom.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor example, The Voice of the Children is a poetry collection authored entirely by students in Jordan’s weekend writing workshops and published in 1970.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-JL5XFKdYO6c\/XD0sBpjDM4I\/AAAAAAAADzo\/fof9FBY-p1w1H8mmnRHXz5bLxipf19WJgCLcBGAs\/s1600\/Savonick_Figure%2B4.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"461\" data-original-width=\"824\" height=\"342\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-JL5XFKdYO6c\/XD0sBpjDM4I\/AAAAAAAADzo\/fof9FBY-p1w1H8mmnRHXz5bLxipf19WJgCLcBGAs\/s400\/Savonick_Figure%2B4.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EIn this collection, the young authors, ranging in age from twelve to fourteen, address the offensive and inaccurate stereotypes of illiterate “ghetto” children of color that were circulating in mainstream media in the late 1960s. Journalists regularly described these children as “silent creatures…[who] didn’t know the names of things, didn’t know that things had names, didn’t even know their own names.”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd yet, in just the first few pages of The Voice of the Children the young authors respond to prompts such as “what would you do if you were president?” with trenchant critiques of ghetto stereotypes, settler colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and patriarchy, made all the more powerful when we consider that their average age was thirteen. In the opening prose poem, fourteen-year-old Vanessa Howard theorizes the power of stereotypes to reduce the complexity of individuals:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003ENine out of ten times when a person hears the word ‘ghetto’ they think of Black people first of all...Ghetto has become a definition meaning Black, garbage, slum areas... I think they put all Black people in a box marked ‘ghetto’ which leaves them having no identity.\u0026nbsp; They should let Black people be seen for themselves, not as one reflection on all.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EBy teaching her students that they were authors with important things to say, Jordan directly challenged the ways mainstream media pathologized working class students of color as deprived, disadvantaged, unruly bodies in need of discipline. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI read these anthologies as the enactment of a social justice pedagogy developed by these teacher-poets. In contrast to the top-down construction of traditional anthologies, which are typically produced for but not by students in the classroom, Jordan, Lorde, and Bambara acted on a conviction that authorship — the power to move people through language — is widely distributed despite racist and patriarchal institutions that privilege the voices of a narrow, white male elite. The authors they worked with were low-income, women with families to support, people of color, and often students (some as young as 9) and the editorial labor that went into these collections ranged from convincing publishers that these authors had something important to say to convincing the authors themselves.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs educator-editors, they put in countless uncompensated hours corresponding with publishers, negotiating contracts, and organizing publicity events. They did so because they understood the multifaceted impact these anthologies could make in people’s lives. These publications helped students understand the power of their voices and share survival strategies across the partitioning walls of classrooms and institutions. They addressed the racism of both the literary publishing industry and academia and called out to collectives of readers who had previously been ignored by publishers.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThese anthologies were part of a grassroots movement for pedagogical, cultural, and social change that emerged not from top-down decisions by school boards, but led by writers and teachers embedded in city classrooms, who witnessed the pernicious gaps among existing curricula, the abundance of Black poetry, and the experiences of students’ lives. In doing so, they drew on a long history of Black self-publishing, which was central to both the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. And it was from these experiences of trying to publish their and their students’ writing that Kitchen Table: Woman of Color Press was born.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPublishing student writing would become a central component of Jordan’s pedagogy for years to come, most notably in her Poetry for the People program at U.C. Berkeley in the 1990s, where she trained hundreds of students to write, publish, and perform their poetry and to become educators who would go out into community centers, homeless shelters, K-12 schools, and churches to teach others to write and publish poetry. Taking advantage of campus resources, Jordan insisted in students’ involvement not just in the co-creation of their classroom, but in the publication process: editing, proofing, binding, budgeting, distribution, and marketing. Reflecting on a course that concluded with a collaboratively-authored anthology, Jordan notes that “the class was producing its own literature: A literature reflecting the ideas and dreams and memories of the actual young Americans at work” (“Merit Review”).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut anthologies are just one example of the collaborative, project-based, multimodal and public pedagogy developed by these teacher-poets. Rather than dictating the forms their final projects should take, Bambara often asked students to find or invent a form that would best tell the story of their learning and share these lessons with a public audience beyond the classroom. “Do not write term papers for me,” Bambara told students, “Make sure they are useful for somebody else as well,” suggesting forms such as a collaborative annotated bibliography, performance art, a short story (for radio or TV), a magazine, puppet theater, a street theater performance, a slide show, or a picture book.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe one requirement was that it “can be shared with others.” Some examples of Jordan’s collaborative projects include a “Wrath Rally” and letter writing campaign against poverty in Biafra, organized by students in her Upward Bound Class, dramatic radio productions on children’s welfare and racial justice in South Central Los Angeles, and A Revolutionary Blueprint, a collection of reading lists, syllabi, poetry, and activities that turned the lessons of Poetry for the People into a “how to guide” for others interested in democratizing poetry. Through these assignments, these teacher-poets taught students that their voices, stories, and actions mattered for social change; in short, that each student, in Jordan’s words, “has much to teach America.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs educators, we are accustomed to thinking about how our courses can be useful to students, but these teacher-poets urge us to consider how classrooms can also become useful to the world beyond its walls. Through this pedagogy, they taught students an activist way of being in the world, in which we do not sit idly by, but confront our complicity in, and therefore our abilities to address, problems in society. They believed that everyone has something to contribute to the production of a more just, equitable, and pleasurable world, and that classrooms were one site for discovering what that might entail. Often, this took the form of getting better poems and better books into the hands of readers who needed them. Through these assignments, they showed students their collective social power that neoliberal institutions cover over: how our learning, knowledge, writing, research, and art provide opportunities to fight for change.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn a moment when conservative politicians like Ronald Reagan were demonizing activist students and calling art education an “intellectual luxury,” these teacher-poets were part of a groundswell pedagogical movement of educators who understood an education in language as a crucial skill for navigating and transforming the world. Best articulated by \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/198292\/sister-outsider-by-audre-lorde\/9781580911863\/\"\u003EAudre Lorde\u003C\/a\u003E, the study of language and literature —\u0026nbsp; in community college, Open Admissions, and remedial writing classrooms; in community centers; in weekend workshops; and around the kitchen table —\u0026nbsp; was never understood as a “luxury,” but as a way of improving “the quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives” (36[CJN7][ds8]), a necessary undertaking for those rendered vulnerable by the social order.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat emerges from this genealogy is a humanistic praxis that is continually responsive to material conditions of inequality, what I am calling “the indispensable humanities.” The indispensable humanities interrogate how resources are unevenly distributed along embodied axes of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and the roles that language, literature, education, and culture play in perpetuating and altering these conditions.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBy way of a conclusion, I want to offer some provisional hypotheses\/answers to this panel’s question.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E1. Critical university studies puts a name on something that activists, intellectuals, and scholars of African American studies, women’s studies, and ethnic studies have been doing for decades and even centuries. And so, a worthwhile project for critical university studies might be to locate our work within an insurgent genealogy that includes not only these-teacher poets but also figures like W.E.B. DuBois, Anna Julia Cooper, Fanny Jackson Coppin, Mary Church Terrell, Septima Clark, Ericka Huggins, and Barbara Christian. In doing so, we might better understand our contemporary moment as the product of much longer and ongoing struggles for educational justice.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-sGXS7EluZDk\/XD0tuLlvSeI\/AAAAAAAADz0\/eOoh9POPsz8C47_XXXP1iYnHw5aGC7JNACLcBGAs\/s1600\/Savonick_Figure%2B5.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"463\" data-original-width=\"823\" height=\"345\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-sGXS7EluZDk\/XD0tuLlvSeI\/AAAAAAAADz0\/eOoh9POPsz8C47_XXXP1iYnHw5aGC7JNACLcBGAs\/s400\/Savonick_Figure%2B5.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;2. Recent work in critical university studies has built on the legacy of these figures, analyzing how higher education often reproduces the conditions of inequality it claims to challenge, especially through longstanding violence against people of color. While these teacher-poets were, in \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/undercommons-fugitive-planning-black-study-ebook\/dp\/B01EX6CYJ6\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1547513370\u0026amp;sr=8-1\u0026amp;keywords=the+undercommons\"\u003EMoten and Harney’s terms\u003C\/a\u003E, “in but not of” the university, they also acknowledged how higher education remains one of the most viable paths towards the modest comforts of a middle-class life, especially for students from working-class backgrounds, and how absconding can be too risky for those without an economic security net. Instead, they used their knowledge of their complicity within unjust institutions to hold institutions accountable, redistribute educational resources, and make them more responsive to diverse communities.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-KeSs1DlehqU\/XD0uftJp5FI\/AAAAAAAADz8\/3bhx6NMcKLMSnCiaOBMimnxr96KFK7kRQCLcBGAs\/s1600\/Savonick_Figure%2B6.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"464\" data-original-width=\"825\" height=\"342\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-KeSs1DlehqU\/XD0uftJp5FI\/AAAAAAAADz8\/3bhx6NMcKLMSnCiaOBMimnxr96KFK7kRQCLcBGAs\/s400\/Savonick_Figure%2B6.png\" width=\"613\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E3. With my research, I aim to position these teacher-poets as leaders of pedagogical, institutional, and social change, whose work points to the importance of fighting on all of these different fronts: from the page, to the classroom, to the streets. In our current moment, one in which racism operates more insidiously (for instance, as Sara Ahmed shows, through the proliferation of diversity discourses), I’m interested in how these educators taught students both to navigate conditions of structural inequality and to imagine and build better alternatives. In particular, their work reminds us that many contemporary student-centered pedagogies emerged in relation to the critiques of power issued by the feminist, antiracist, and anti-imperial social movements of the late 1960s. Their work demonstrates how our pedagogies can contribute to larger struggles for social justice, even from within conservative, hostile, neoliberal institutions (what \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.upress.umn.edu\/book-division\/books\/the-imperial-university\"\u003EAlexis Pauline Gumbs calls “counter-poetic” pedagogy\u003C\/a\u003E). My aim is not necessarily to say that contemporary educators should do these exact things (although I’ve had a lot of fun trying) but to make available different ways of thinking about our classrooms as sites of social change, especially in relation to Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement, and other movements for social justice. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd so I’ll leave you with June Jordan’s question: “how will the American university teach otherwise?” \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/1344778439194373099\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/01\/insurgent-genealogies-poetic-and.html#comment-form","title":"4 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/1344778439194373099"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/1344778439194373099"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2019\/01\/insurgent-genealogies-poetic-and.html","title":"Insurgent Genealogies: The Poetic and Pedagogical Praxis of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich "}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-MdYqWrFi5FA\/XD0ndIK1VxI\/AAAAAAAADzM\/uajslPH5heICt7NhQZtfY_MRC86uB6_BwCLcBGAs\/s72-c\/Savonick_Figure%2B1.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"4"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-7021993100200036501"},"published":{"$t":"2016-01-14T12:16:00.002-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-06-23T23:29:25.692-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Austerity"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Janet Napolitano"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Management"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Protests"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Race"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UCOP"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"University of Wisconsin System"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Top Trends for 2016 Higher Ed: Earth-Two Edition"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-XZhvWFLkeKI\/VoVy60RctEI\/AAAAAAAADAk\/8iJqeTW_1GQ\/s1600\/flashoftwoworlds.gif\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-XZhvWFLkeKI\/VoVy60RctEI\/AAAAAAAADAk\/8iJqeTW_1GQ\/s320\/flashoftwoworlds.gif\" width=\"223\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003ESince \u003Ci\u003EFlash\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;Comics writers discovered the existence of Earth-Two in 1961, readers have been tracking unexpected divergences between the paired planets that exist in parallel dimensions.\u0026nbsp; The Earths have generated divergent histories with more or less the same people. This makes it easy to study the effects of variable reactions to structural forces like culture, law, and economic policy, since backward leaders and our unfortunate \"human nature\" reign on both worlds-- as on the other Earths DC Comics has discovered since.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere's one other thing:\u0026nbsp; Earth-One is considered a Silver Age and Earth-Two a Golden Age planet.\u0026nbsp; The terms derived initially from the age of comics in which their lead superheros evolved, but came to be applied to the quality of the planets themselves.\u0026nbsp; Life is better on Earth-Two: less impoverished, less tyrannical, less hypermasculine in leadership styles, and less inclined towards multiple gun deaths. \u0026nbsp;Some believe that the lower, Silver Age status of our Earth-One results from its lower cultural intelligence. \u0026nbsp;This inclines it to manage social relations with fixed procedures and peer communications with programming.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow do the Earths compare on major university trends? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E1. Both Earths experienced our old friend\u0026nbsp;\u003Ci\u003Epermausterity\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ethat\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/i\u003Ewe've \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2014\/07\/confronting-our-permanent-public.html\"\u003Ediscussed before\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp; In 2015, a small uptick in state appropriations left outlays nearly 20 percent below their pre-recession levels (\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.sheeo.org\/sites\/default\/files\/project-files\/SHEF_FY2014_EMBARGOED.pdf\"\u003Esummary page 8)\u003C\/a\u003E. Meanwhile, the historic backfill for state cuts, student tuition hikes, became politically untenable, as UC President Janet Napolitano found out when she couldn't get even a piece of her 5% a year for 5 years through Sacramento. A second solution, ed-tech, was to step into the breach with massive savings through technological efficiency at the same level of quality.\u0026nbsp; That fix failed completely, though many politicians continued to flog it. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe upshot for 2016 is that real funds for the educational core will stay flat or fall as a share of overall expenditures, even as the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1RMODqh\"\u003Estudent share of public college expenditures has grown from 1\/2 to nearly 2\/3rds\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;of the total.\u0026nbsp; So Earth-One's 2016 default will be sagging public college quality as these institutions and their less-privileged students fall further behind the instructional and research trends set by the wealthy private universities, which in 2015 were richer and more exclusive than ever.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EStratification between public and private will be echoed by more of the same within public systems. The public flagships will stay afloat while the more vulnerable campuses drift into whatever shallows will keep most decks above water. \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/languagepolitics.org\/2015\/11\/09\/austerity-at-uwm-ccoet\/\"\u003ENick Fleisher\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ragmanscircles.wordpress.com\/2015\/12\/10\/locked-out-of-chapman-hall-or-downsizing-uw-milwaukee-one-survey-at-a-time\/\"\u003ERichard Grusin\u003C\/a\u003E discussed cuts at the important Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, which educates a large urban population while dealing with unjustified reductions.\u0026nbsp; These diverging fates were intensified by a tradition of gross inequality in per-student funding across state systems: Sara Goldrick-Rab and Tammy Kolbe discussed the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/views\/2015\/09\/28\/essay-need-consider-which-institutions-should-bear-brunt-state-cuts-public-higher\"\u003Elopsided figures for the University of Wisconsin\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;system.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EE1 academic leaders no longer dream of fixing a problem that endangers the core purpose of public colleges, which is equal education.\u0026nbsp; E1 citizens didn't vote for the deterioration of quality of \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2015\/07\/29\/university-wisconsin-eau-claire-responds-massive-cuts-state-support\"\u003Ecampuses serving the poorer and more remote parts\u003C\/a\u003E of states while their tax dollars support the flagships that serve the most non-resident students, but that is what they are going to get. They face a renewed elitism of public college education, right when universal quality is more necessary than ever.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHumans are no less foolish on Earth-Two. But E2 has better communication from grassroots to the executive tiers, where for cultural reasons they care more about how C-suite decisions affect life in the trenches.\u0026nbsp; Thus E2 Napolitano started 2016 by telling her staff:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EStop bringing me these \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2014\/11\/the-new-normal-what-does-it-mean-to.html\"\u003Enickel solutions\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp; Stuff like UCOP Venture Capital may be good PR, but will generate a drop in the bucket if we're lucky. You realize it's not 1995 anymore? \u0026nbsp; Non-resident tuition is a band-aid--anyone can do the math.\u0026nbsp; I know UC students who couldn't get detailed paper feedback from the faculty we're not hiring even if we passed out handguns at every campus gate.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;I don't want to see another Jerry budget with \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2016\/01\/follow-austerity-road-governors-higher.html\"\u003Ejust 4% for us again\u003C\/a\u003E. I need a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/slide-11-4400-layoffs-3700-unfilled.html\"\u003E16% state funding increase\u003C\/a\u003E each year for five years, starting now.\u0026nbsp; Tell Jerry\u003Ci\u003E\u0026nbsp;\"\u003C\/i\u003Etuition is frozen forever\" if he rebuilds state funding levels. \u0026nbsp;Make a list of exactly how all of the new money will go to the educational core--I mean 100%.\u0026nbsp; First explain what the hell UC \"educational quality\" is.\u0026nbsp; Call some actual UC instructors why don't you?\u0026nbsp; Tell Jerry we won't spend one new dime on executive comp.\u0026nbsp; We're going to announce a two-year freeze on executive hiring.\u0026nbsp; And please, start de-gunking the ridiculous bureaucratic processes around here. \u0026nbsp;Re-engineer something rather than just make campuses comply with more standardization.\u0026nbsp; And call those guys that say we can get 2001 low-tuition and good funding for \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/keepcaliforniaspromise.org\/473424\/reset-2015-16\"\u003Eanother 30 bucks a year\u003C\/a\u003E or whatever it is. Figure out how we can support it!\u003C\/blockquote\u003ENo Earth-One president would talk like that.\u0026nbsp; And yet it follows from two Earth-Two cultural practices: (1) open, reciprocal communication between execs and the least powerful of their institutional cultures--undergraduate education, disciplines without extramural income, low-income students; (2) the refusal to sacrifice weaker units for the sake of the strong. \u0026nbsp;E2 senior managers move from educational needs to \u0026nbsp;budget requests rather than the other way around, with the goal of quality for the whole.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E2. \u003Ci\u003EMassive student protests against racism\u003C\/i\u003E.\u0026nbsp; In 2015, both Earths saw large anti-racist protests sandwiched between, on the one hand, ongoing police killings of unarmed Black people followed by the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/nation\/la-na-tamir-rice-grand-jury-20151228-story.html\"\u003Enon-indictments\u003C\/a\u003E of key shooters, and on the other, the Supreme Court's triple-jeopardy reconsideration of affirmative action in the\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/24\/opinion\/the-supreme-courts-diversity-dilemma.html\"\u003E Fisher case\u003C\/a\u003E (triple because the 2013 \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2015\/12\/09\/abigail_fisher_deserves_an_f_for_her_race_baiting_supreme_court_case_aimed_at_boosting_subpar_white_students\/\"\u003EFisher\u003C\/a\u003E decision was already a retread of the 1990s \u003Ci\u003EHopwood\u003C\/i\u003E cases that were decided by \u003Ci\u003EBollinger\u003C\/i\u003E in 2003). Racism on campus (\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/How-Three-Bad-Decisions\/234278?cid=pm\u0026amp;utm_source=pm\u0026amp;utm_medium=en\u0026amp;elq=783b889f77c447fc93e9b337142c8c2d\u0026amp;elqCampaignId=1895\u0026amp;elqaid=6961\u0026amp;elqat=1\u0026amp;elqTrackId=29f8b5c843b842b09c4bb897f2367818\"\u003EMissouri\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@aaronzlewis\/what-s-really-going-on-at-yale-6bdbbeeb57a6\"\u003EYale\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/blogs\/ticker\/ithaca-college-faculty-votes-no-confidence-in-embattled-president\/107403?cid=pm\u0026amp;utm_source=pm\u0026amp;utm_medium=en\u0026amp;elq=b73b84b36aa64ff8aea8055b8019ebd5\u0026amp;elqCampaignId=2062\u0026amp;elqaid=7221\u0026amp;elqat=1\u0026amp;elqTrackId=1a66406fd0c343f2a08c691128e5191d\"\u003EIthaca College\u003C\/a\u003E, etc.) showed itself to rise from campuses failing to shelter students from the wider social regression.\u0026nbsp; E1 and E2 political leaders had tolerated or encouraged a boom in economic inequality and tolerated or encouraged the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/segregation-now-full-text\"\u003Eresegregation of the American school system\u003C\/a\u003E. Meanwhile, the US college system also became \u003Ci\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/cew.georgetown.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/SeparateUnequal.FR_.pdf\"\u003ESeparate and Unequal\u003C\/a\u003E:\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;most new white students went to more selective, wealthier colleges while most \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/black-students-are-being-shut-out-of-top-public-colleges_56703e08e4b0e292150f40c4\"\u003Enew students of color went to less selective\u003C\/a\u003E and poorer mass institutions. \u0026nbsp;Colleges continued the minoritization of students of color even as they formed pluralities or majorities of student bodies, and did not explain and demand strong race-conscious policies. They outsourced racial politics and social integration to their offices of student affairs, and on Earth-One and Earth-Two alike, didn't generally make students of color feel like they were first-class citizens on their own campuses.\u0026nbsp; Faced with intensive protests, E1 senior managers offered to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/Why-Embattled-Leaders-Should\/234222\"\u003Elisten better\u003C\/a\u003E while rethinking some specific instances of their tradition of concealing their complicity with larger racist forces (like the presidency of\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/We-Can-No-Longer-Ignore-the\/234654\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;Woodrow Wilson)\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp; Structural changes stayed off the table.\u0026nbsp; \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMeanwhile, on Earth-Two, a staffer in the University of Missouri Office of the President read a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/kristof.blogs.nytimes.com\/2015\/12\/09\/what-do-campus-protesters-really-want\/\"\u003Econtent analysis\u003C\/a\u003E of anti-racist student demands across the country.\u0026nbsp; She saw that the most frequent were for more faculty of color, more student diversity, more courses on race, ethnicity, and sexuality theory, more institutional support for students of color, more diversity training, and better mechanisms for reporting, sanctioning, and preventing hate crimes.\u0026nbsp; Wow, the staffer thought, these are the demands of the 1980s! Why didn't we met these years ago?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn early 2016, she tracked down E2 Mizzou's substitute president and spoke as follows:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003ELook, our protesters are the \u003Ci\u003Echildren\u003C\/i\u003E of the students who denounced the lack of faculty of color back in 1985.\u0026nbsp; Most of higher ed has spent the last thirty years screwing around. \u0026nbsp; University managers look like racist tools because they can't do much better than the right-wingers that run Congress and the Supreme Court. \u0026nbsp; Here is part of the speech I suggest you let me write: \"I support racial equality of \u003Ci\u003Eoutcome\u003C\/i\u003E, not just of opportunity.\u0026nbsp; The fact that society maintains racial disparity in everything--income, wealth, health, longevity, education, you name it--doesn't mean universities need to.\u0026nbsp; So as of today, my administration stands for equality of racial outcomes.\u0026nbsp; Now we need to figure out how to get that at Mizzou Earth-Two.\u0026nbsp; You've heard of the flipped classroom?\u0026nbsp; Mizzou will start with the flipped administration.\u0026nbsp; We'll put students in charge of designing the grievance processes and curricula that they prefer. Student affairs staffers and faculty will act as a support structure for advice and counsel.\u0026nbsp; Then students, faculty, staff, and senior managers will hold a series of quiet meetings and loud town halls--what do you all call them? General Assemblies?--in which we'll hash out the results democratically. \u0026nbsp;STudents won't decide on their own, but they will lead the process. \u0026nbsp;Another thing we're going to do.\u0026nbsp; My colleague, the new head of the Columbia flagship campus, will work with the Missouri system as a whole to equalize funding across this great system. We have a plan for a leveling up over a five year period.\u0026nbsp; Our goal is to fund the campuses with higher percentages of students of color at the same per-student level as the largely white flagship campus.\u0026nbsp; We need equitable funding for equitable racial outcomes, and Missouri is going to lead what I am sure is going to become a national trend.\" \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E3. \u003Ci\u003EAdmin's Autocracy Crisis\u003C\/i\u003E: The newly-installed head of the University of Iowa, Bruce Harreld, drew new attention to himself by saying that professors who failed to prepare lessons\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2015\/12\/16\/university-iowa-leader-apologizes-saying-teachers-without-lesson-plans-should-be\"\u003E should be shot.\u003C\/a\u003E On Earth-One, faculty awareness of \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/11\/the-weak-vs-wrong-and-emerging.html\"\u003Edomineering Boards and weakened Senates\u003C\/a\u003E had been growing throughout 2015. One piece called it \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/10\/how-are-faculty-hundred-years-later.html\"\u003EVeblen's Nightmare.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp; In E1 Iowa, the main response was \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2015\/12\/16\/university-iowa-leader-apologizes-saying-teachers-without-lesson-plans-should-be\"\u003Ea librarian's eloquent repudiation\u003C\/a\u003E of President Harreld's comments, which broke with the taboos of a faculty deference culture that had been helping administrators ignore or override faculty expertise even in core faculty arenas. \u0026nbsp; In an email to E1 Harreld, Lisa B. Gardinier explained,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EThere are many schools of pedagogy and, being a university, there are  several, if not many, good ways to plan lessons, classes, and  curriculum, and our academic freedom extends to teaching in the way we  see fit to the content on which we are trusted to be experts, preferably  with adequate support and opportunities for the development and  improvement of our teaching skills throughout our career. Poor planning is an unfortunate waste of both the instructor’s and  the students’ time and research but is not a capital or corporal  offense, leading me to the second part of your comment. \u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EFor a university president to use the term “should be shot” so  flippantly, and just a week after the most recent highly publicized mass  shooting and in a tense atmosphere of racist law enforcement violence,  is horrifying and unacceptable. For someone who claims to sideline his  vision to that of the university community, to casually suggest  potentially lethal punishment as consequences for failure to comply with  a narrow perception of the correct way to fulfill one of our duties, is  irresponsible and unprofessional. You may not have been kicked out  since your appointment, but not for lack of trying, and nor is anyone is  advocating for bodily harm to come of you or anyone complicit in your  hire.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EEarth-One greets Lisa Gardinier's open critique as an act of individual courage and candor.\u0026nbsp; Earth-Two, being more culturally evolved, sees it as an act of public witness in an institutional context, pointing toward collaborative emulation with a goal of social health.\u0026nbsp; Others take up the challenge of frankness, writing E2 Harreld with non-anonymous appraisals of his performance and its effect on their feelings about their institution and their work.\u0026nbsp; The E2 Academic Senate encourages public statements as expressions of an ethic of general participation in self-goverance.\u0026nbsp; Over a few weeks, as open exchange becomes the rule rather than the exception, flaming and trolling all but disappear, as their function of nuking the enemy becomes less attractive psychologically.\u0026nbsp; The same goes for retaliation and shunning, twin norming procedures whose coercive and negative effects become deceasingly acceptable as more people survive and even thrive on commentary.\u0026nbsp; Iowa becomes a model of open governance by generalized peer-review. \u0026nbsp;It becomes an experiment in combining stable and regularized structures with an ethics of disclosure.\u0026nbsp; Once someone names this the \u003Ci\u003Eoperative community\u003C\/i\u003E, and E2 President Harreld enthusiastically joins in, the chair of the E2 Iowa Board of Regents responds.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EWhen we hired Bruce, we were following the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.goacta.org\/executivesummary\/governance_for_a_new_era_overview\"\u003Escript\u003C\/a\u003E that said we needed to take ownership of the university away from faculty, staff, and students.\u0026nbsp; We felt entitled to brush off the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.aaup.org\/file\/aaupBulletin_UofIowa_Dec9_331pm.pdf\"\u003EAAUP's rejection of our procedures\u003C\/a\u003E, and rule through negative stereotypes of various university subgroups. \u0026nbsp;Now my earlier\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/article\/U-of-Iowa-Faculty-Members\/232937\/?cid=at\u0026amp;utm_source=at\u0026amp;utm_medium=en\"\u003Edismissal of faculty critiques \u003C\/a\u003Eas \"embracing the status quo of the past\" seems kind of dumb.\u0026nbsp; Since I'm too old to change, I'm announcing my resignation from the Board, so I can find a sphere where my kind of unilateral top-down decisionmaking still makes sense. Universities need every single person's full intelligence or they don't work. \u0026nbsp;I wish Iowa all the best.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EThese three examples from DC Comics archives show Earth-Two does better not by having special Jedi foresight and discipline but by having open institutional cultures. \u0026nbsp;Their universities are less managerial and more democratic, less autocratic and more proceduralist, less algorithmic and more widely informed. \u0026nbsp;Luckily, Earth-One can learn from the more advanced cultures of Earth-Two. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA belated and hopeful Happy New Year, whichever planet you're from."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/7021993100200036501\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2016\/01\/top-trends-for-2016-higher-ed-earth-two.html#comment-form","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/7021993100200036501"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/7021993100200036501"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2016\/01\/top-trends-for-2016-higher-ed-earth-two.html","title":"Top Trends for 2016 Higher Ed: Earth-Two Edition"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-XZhvWFLkeKI\/VoVy60RctEI\/AAAAAAAADAk\/8iJqeTW_1GQ\/s72-c\/flashoftwoworlds.gif","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-2318986121408914666"},"published":{"$t":"2015-11-16T15:00:00.002-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-03-18T18:21:28.576-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Affordability"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Budget"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"California"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Costs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Faculty"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Funding Model"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Governance"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Income"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Janet Napolitano"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Jerry Brown"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UC"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UC Regents"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UCOP"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"This Week at the Regents: The Budget"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Be4un0P1K-Q\/Vkj7Gnheg3I\/AAAAAAAAAw8\/mT5DYWgqzXw\/s1600\/t1larg.charlie.chaplin.modern.times.scene.gi.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"180\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Be4un0P1K-Q\/Vkj7Gnheg3I\/AAAAAAAAAw8\/mT5DYWgqzXw\/s320\/t1larg.charlie.chaplin.modern.times.scene.gi.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EThis week's Regents \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/meetings\/agendas\/nov15.html\"\u003Emeeting's Agenda\u003C\/a\u003E is chock full of important items. \u0026nbsp;In particular, UCOP is presenting the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/j5.pdf\"\u003E2016-2017 budget proposal\u003C\/a\u003E along with a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/j6.pdf\"\u003Ethree-year \"sustainability\" plan\u003C\/a\u003E, a proposal to improve the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/f2.pdf\"\u003Efinances of UCRP through internal borrowing\u003C\/a\u003E, and a proposal to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/j1.pdf\"\u003Ecentralize the management of the Health Care system\u003C\/a\u003E. Unfortunately, the lessons from this week's Regents' agenda is that despite UCOP's efforts to tout its agreement with Governor Brown, last year's tuition gambit has done little to change the fundamentally underfunded situation of the University. \u0026nbsp;Nor is there any indication that either the Regents or UCOP are prepared to break from long-standing patterns of strategy in order to begin to ensure a UC focused on its educational mission and on increasing the quality of its offerings.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ETHE PLAN ITSELF\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUCOP's proposed budget is a work up of the deal that President Napolitano and Governor Brown negotiated by sidelining both the Legislature and the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/senate.universityofcalifornia.edu\/reports\/documents\/MG_JN_SenateConsultation.pdf\"\u003EAcademic Senate\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp; \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/05\/the-may-budget-revision-uc-budget-goes.html\"\u003EChris \u003C\/a\u003Eand \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/totherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/06\/new-budget-little-improvement.html\"\u003EI\u003C\/a\u003E have already commented on the deal itself so let me simply point to some of the more important elements. \u0026nbsp;The \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/j5attach1.pdf\"\u003Eproposed Budget for 2016-2017\u003C\/a\u003E assumes another 4% increase in base funding, $96 million in one-time funding in \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/08\/ucop-begins-process-to-reduce-pension.html\"\u003Eexchange for changes in UC's retirement system\u003C\/a\u003E, $25 million for enrolling an additional 5000 California residents, $25 million for deferred maintenance, and an additional $68.7 million in new Non-Resident Tuition (NRT) revenue. \u0026nbsp;It continues to make the annual promises about the fantastic savings that UCOP is gaining through various technological and management initiatives. In all, UCOP reports a total 2015-16 revenue of $28.3 billion of which core funds constitute $7.3 billion. \u0026nbsp;In 2016-2017 they are budgeting for an increased core revenue of $481.3 million.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAlong with the proposed budget UCOP is submitting what it calls a three year \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/j6.pdf\"\u003EFinancial Stability Plan\u003C\/a\u003E.\" \u0026nbsp;The plan restates the Brown-Napolitano deal that calls for continued 4% annual base budget increases through 2018-2019 and fulfillment of the Governor's promise of $436 million over 3 years (although the Legislature has only promised the first $96 million) in exchange for reducing retirement benefits substantially for future employees.\u0026nbsp; It includes the proposed $25 million that the Legislature has offered for an additional 5,000 California resident students in 2016-17, and offers to enroll an additional 2500 more in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 (hopefully in exchange for additional funding). It increases the NRT by 8%, the student services fee 5% annually, and proposes tuition increases tied to inflation beginning in 2017-2018.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA first point, which Chris has made many times, is that the 4% increases, while better than the extreme cuts of the late Schwarzenegger and early Brown administrations, are too small to overcome the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/04\/the-lao-and-permanent-university.html\"\u003Elonger-term under-funding of the University that goes back 15 years\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp;To make matters worse, both the Budget and the Financial Stability Plan each bake in increasing burdens on campuses and their students, faculty, and staff. \u0026nbsp;The $25 million promised for the upcoming year's 5000 additional resident students is approximately half of what both UC and the LAO agree is the marginal cost of an additional student (\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.lao.ca.gov\/handouts\/education\/2015\/Enrollment-Funding-for-UC042115.pdf\"\u003E8\u003C\/a\u003E). The new underfunded students will force campuses to shift funds from other efforts to pay for these costs (costs that will draw on core funds).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn order to help pay for these students, UC campuses will continue to increase the number of non-resident students, although they say at a slower pace (due to political pressures), so that there will be an additional 1200 non-resident students next year and the latter will be paying an 8% tuition increase. \u0026nbsp;UCOP apparently believes that the State will continue to pay $25 million each year to help support the initial 5000. \u0026nbsp;This seems a reasonable assumption in the short term, though it is a long-term problem if it is not included in an expanded base allocation. \u0026nbsp; If the additional 5000 are also inadequately funded, UC will have added 10,000 resident students over 3 years without providing campuses with the resources needed to properly educate and support these students.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUCOP insists that they are determined to lower the faculty-student ratio throughout the system. \u0026nbsp;But does anyone really foresee an increase in faculty numbers that could do that even as student numbers jump--6200 new students in 2016-2017 plus at least an additional 2500 additional residents in each of the following two years? \u0026nbsp;For those campuses with significant NRT, at least some of those funds will need to go to supporting the new enrollments. \u0026nbsp;For the other half of the UC system without significant NRT, \u0026nbsp;those enrollments likely will eat up a chunk of the monies they will receive from rebenching and the additional 4% in base state funding. \u0026nbsp;This plan may be sustainable in the sense that the campuses and students will still be here at its conclusion. \u0026nbsp;But it doesn't suggest that UCOP's stated commitments to increasing quality and improving campus facilities can be met.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Budget and Sustainability plan together lock in continued under-funding, increased burdens on campuses, faculty, and students, and further erosion of shared governance at UC. \u0026nbsp;At its best it is predicated on a set of promises from Governor Brown. \u0026nbsp;I needn't remind people how well previous compacts with Governor's have held up over time.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ETHE FUTURE FOR THE FACULTY\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA second aspect of the Budget, one of special importance to both faculty and staff, is the proposed reorganization of the retirement system.\u0026nbsp; In her negotiations with the Governor, President Napolitano agreed to create a new tier for those hired on or after July 1, 2016. \u0026nbsp;These employees would have a pensionable salary limit (i.e. the amount of annual salary that can be considered in calculating the size of a person's pension) based on the state's PEPRA limits rather than the previous, and much higher social security cap. \u0026nbsp;In return, the Legislature agreed to release $96 million once these changes have been made, and the Governor has promised additional funds up to the $436 million I mentioned above. \u0026nbsp;The Legislature has made no commitment to the last two years of the Governor's promise. (For good accounting of these developments there are various posts on this site and by Dan Mitchell on the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com\/\"\u003EUCLA Faculty Association Blog\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have no doubt that there was, and is, political pressure on this from Sacramento. \u0026nbsp;But to get some sense of the extent of UCOP's concessions on this score it might be helpful to turn to another item on the Regents Agenda--a proposal to borrow money over the next three years from the University's Short Term Investment Pool (STIP) to help pay down the legally defined unfunded liability of UCRP. (As Bob Samuels \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/bob-samuels\/how-a-republican-accounti_b_529944.html\"\u003Epointed out long ago\u003C\/a\u003E, this legal liability is based on the requirement that UCRP has enough money on hand to pay out pensions if everyone retired immediately). \u0026nbsp;This short term funding is something that the Senate has been pushing for several years, though campuses, perhaps especially those with medical centers, have been resistant. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn very basic terms, the proposal will allow the University to borrow from its own funds to help pay into UCRP, thereby helping to keep the University's annual contribution to UCRP at a steady state and to shorten the time until the unfunded liability has been paid. \u0026nbsp;Strikingly, UCOP is proposing to borrow $1,463,400,000--or put another way nearly three times the amount of money that the Governor is promising in exchange for a dramatic reduction in the worth of UC benefits. \u0026nbsp;As UCOP continues to emphasize, perhaps in the hopes of muting opposition, this new plan will not affect anyone employed before July 1, 2016. \u0026nbsp;But it will affect new generations of UC employees and lead to a significant reduction in overall compensation. \u0026nbsp;Although \u003Cu\u003Etheoretically\u003C\/u\u003E\u0026nbsp;some of this loss could be made up in salary and other forms of compensation, \u0026nbsp;those forms of compensation do not have the same tax benefits as do pensions. More importantly, they increase retirement risk. \u0026nbsp;Nor is it clear why anyone should think that state funding for salaries will increase in the future at a rate that will cover the lost compensation value for future employees.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere is presently a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu\/compensation-and-benefits\/2016-retirement-benefits-advisory-task-force\/index.html\"\u003ETask Force \u003C\/a\u003Echarged with determining what the new pension tier will look like and with coming up with strategies to minimize the reduction in benefits to future employees (since it is unlikely that they can be eliminated). \u0026nbsp;The \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/cucfa.org\/2015\/11\/uc-task-force-considering-pension-cuts\/\"\u003ETask Force is expected to present its conclusions to President Napolitano next month \u003C\/a\u003Eand there will be a limited period for comment early next year. \u0026nbsp;But as Dan Mitchell has repeatedly pointed out (e.g.,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com\/2015\/11\/regents-pension-funding-item-short.html\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com\/2015\/11\/history-of-pension-preemption-sentence.html\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com\/2015\/11\/today-is-nov-15-time-to-fix-uc-regents.html\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E), the proposal for STIP funding includes a statement that \"New employees will have the opportunity to choose a fully defined contribution plan as a retirement option, as an alternative to the PEPRA-capped defined benefit plan.\" (\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/regents.universityofcalifornia.edu\/regmeet\/nov15\/f2.pdf\"\u003E3\u003C\/a\u003E) \u0026nbsp;This statement is included despite the fact that even the University's own FAQ on the question insist \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu\/compensation-and-benefits\/2016-retirement-benefits-advisory-task-force\/faq.html#decided\"\u003Ethat no decision has been made as to whether to have a purely defined Defined Contribution Plan\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(h\/t Michael Buroway). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo we have a cut in retirement benefits negotiated outside of the regular shared governance plan, a special Task Force, set up by the President to determine the shape of those cuts, official information on the Task Force site saying that no decision has been made about a defined contribution plan, and an item on the Regents Agenda suggesting that that decision has been made even though the Task Force has not finished its discussions. \u0026nbsp;This situation exists despite the fact that several years ago, after extensive study, the University recognized that a Defined Contribution Plan was less able to serve either the needs of individuals or the needs of the institution as a whole. \u0026nbsp;Nor does the amended language of the Budget Bill (\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB97\"\u003Esection 85\u003C\/a\u003E) require the University to start a Defined Contribution Plan. This decision by UCOP to overturn the carefully established retirement consensus builds upon \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/senate.universityofcalifornia.edu\/reports\/documents\/MG_JN_SenateConsultation.pdf\"\u003Eother indications\u003C\/a\u003E that UCOP is perfectly happy to sideline shared governance when it is convenient for them. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ETHE RETURN OF THE REPRESSED\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere is one other item, or rather the absence of one other item, in the Budget proposal that is significant. \u0026nbsp;In its Budget Summary (\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB97\"\u003Epg. 29\u003C\/a\u003E) UCOP notes a series of accountability measures required by the State. Interestingly, I could find no mention in the documents (please let me know if I missed it) of another set of legal obligations that are important for the budget. \u0026nbsp;Those are from \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB97\"\u003Esection 84\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;that requires the University to provide much more detailed transparency about its administrative structure--especially concerning the Managers and Senior Professionals Group (MSP) and to rethink its proclaimed market comparisons for the Senior Management Group. \u0026nbsp;I mention this not because I want to demonize the people in either group but because it is difficult to see how a truly sustainable future can be created for the University that does not seriously rethink its administrative structure, starting with a better understanding of the relation between administration and the educational core.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIf UC truly wishes to create a sustainable future for itself, it will need to create a more decentralized administrative structure, one more attuned to the actual teaching, learning, and research that goes on in the everyday life of the institution. \u0026nbsp; That sort of transformation might have resulted from the UCOF process a few years ago--but it didn't. \u0026nbsp;It is clear that it will not emerge from UCOP. \u0026nbsp;But it is needed more than ever."},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/2318986121408914666\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/11\/this-week-at-regents-budget.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/2318986121408914666"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/2318986121408914666"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/11\/this-week-at-regents-budget.html","title":"This Week at the Regents: The Budget"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Michael Meranze"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05336793340375780406"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Be4un0P1K-Q\/Vkj7Gnheg3I\/AAAAAAAAAw8\/mT5DYWgqzXw\/s72-c\/t1larg.charlie.chaplin.modern.times.scene.gi.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-6703934676215083757"},"published":{"$t":"2015-08-17T14:06:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-04-07T12:51:09.394-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Academic Freedom"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Budget"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Costs"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Funding Model"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Public Funding"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Steven Salaita"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"HIllary Clinton and Phyllis Wise: Signs of Better Things"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-SOVa_7tqmMA\/Vc8wZWEOCAI\/AAAAAAAAC94\/hvylhHWWHaY\/s1600\/Phyllis%2BWise%2Bin%2BOffice.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"203\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-SOVa_7tqmMA\/Vc8wZWEOCAI\/AAAAAAAAC94\/hvylhHWWHaY\/s320\/Phyllis%2BWise%2Bin%2BOffice.jpg\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EThe Democratic candidates public college plans are more interesting than most coverage has implied (brief comparisons are \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/where-the-presidential-candidates-stand-on-student-debt-2015-07-28\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E). They are all variations of \"Debt-Free College\" proposals, to use candidate \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/martinomalley.com\/the-latest\/op-ed\/debt-free-college\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMartin O'Malley's term\u003C\/a\u003E, structured in part as federal bailouts of state universities. \u0026nbsp;They are grossly underfunded, but they establish new principles and could launch a new political struggle for public eduction reconstruction.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy suspicions thawed as I read through them. It's hard to work in the sector and not be excited that maybe the federal government will save public universities from their states. \u0026nbsp;It's equally hard not to be excited about real reductions of student costs and student debt, which have led to U.S. attainment declines, the unjustifiable burdening of Millennials, and other assorted evils. \u0026nbsp;More pressure to fix debt was added by a shocking St. Louis Fed report whose findings were summarized by the NYT coverage as \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/08\/17\/business\/racial-wealth-gap-persists-despite-degree-study-says.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\"Racial Wealth Gap Persists Despite Degrees.\"\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp; The headline should have been, \"Racial Wealth Gap Increased by Getting Degrees.\" \u0026nbsp;Gaze at this figure for a while (from the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.stlouisfed.org\/publications\/in-the-balance\/issue12-2015\/why-didnt-higher-education-protect-hispanic-and-black-wealth\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eoriginal report\u003C\/a\u003E--as already \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Black-Wealth-White-Perspective-Inequality\/dp\/0415913756\/ref=sr_1_2?s=fiona-hardware\u0026amp;ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1439836172\u0026amp;sr=8-2\u0026amp;keywords=black+wealth+white+wealth\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eexplained by Shapiro \u0026amp; Oliver\u003C\/a\u003E twenty years ago):\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-e3Ya_Xi0PeY\/VdIoX4X2f7I\/AAAAAAAAC-Q\/n3iiYpIjQK4\/s1600\/RacialWealthGapPersistsFig3StLFed0815.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"257\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-e3Ya_Xi0PeY\/VdIoX4X2f7I\/AAAAAAAAC-Q\/n3iiYpIjQK4\/s400\/RacialWealthGapPersistsFig3StLFed0815.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECollege not only doesn't end racial stratification--it increases it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo what are the chances of a fix? Bad for now, but better later.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Obama Administration has been laying some groundwork: it just announced a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/08\/15\/your-money\/revised-program-will-reduce-student-loan-repayments.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Erevised \"pay as you earn\" (Repaye) plan\u003C\/a\u003E, under which \"\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003EMonthly loan payments for participants in the repayment program will be  capped at 10 percent of their discretionary income. Any loan balance  remaining after 20 years of payments will be forgiven.\" \u0026nbsp;This will lead to big cuts in monthly payments for lower-income graduates--from $333 to $61 in the NYT article's example as well as de facto loan forgiveness.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003EThe big new campaign announcement was the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.hillaryclinton.com\/p\/briefing\/factsheets\/2015\/08\/10\/college-compact\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENew College Compact\u003C\/a\u003E, Hillary Clinton's battleship of a college plan that is trying to swamp Bernie Sanders'\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/download\/collegeforallsummary\/?inline=file\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;College for All\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;sailboat with sheer tonnage of items addressed. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMrs. Clinton's plan involves mostly breaks in interest payments on student loans (one-third of her total). \u0026nbsp;Another chunk would go to an \"innovation fund\" for developing some non-college learning infrastructure and better information and enforcement of existing loan regulations (it's a hodge podge). \u0026nbsp;Half of her new funds would go to grants to state colleges to offset tuition reductions, coupled with unspecified new quid pro quos about tuition and cost reduction. \u0026nbsp;Her total is $350 billion over 10 years. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBernie Sanders's plan is not so different, except it focuses less on cracking down on bad actors in the sector and has an annual total of $70 billion, or twice Mrs. Clinton's. \u0026nbsp;There aren't yet a lot of details to sweat, though clearly Mr. Sanders's figure is much closer to the price tag that would make free public college a reality. \u0026nbsp;Mr. O'Malley lacks details but has the most heartfelt rhetoric.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere are a few general issues worth mentioning.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFirst, the political center on public colleges has moved. \u0026nbsp;It has moved left, away from letting \"market forces\" continue to pile up student costs and student debt. \u0026nbsp;Free community college has been endorsed by the US President. \u0026nbsp;Free 4 year college is now on its heels. \u0026nbsp;In almost no time, politicians like Mr. O'Malley have started to write, \"today, our kids aren't getting the same bargain that my dad did\" as the new common sense. \u0026nbsp;Bob Samuels has \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/changinguniversities.blogspot.co.uk\/2015\/06\/free-public-higher-ed-goes-viral.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Epointed out\u003C\/a\u003E that a couple of years ago his book \u003Ci\u003EWhy Public Higher Education Should Be Free\u003C\/i\u003E\u0026nbsp;made him a \"lone, crazy voice in the wilderness.\" \u0026nbsp;Now \"free\" is a respectable part of the mainstream debate.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESecond, we're witnessing not just a changing political balance but a paradigm shift. The Democratic college plans try to (1) lower debt payments by (2) reducing public college tuition so that less debt is incurred in the first place. They propose to do this by (3) giving federal money directly to state colleges to offset lost tuition income and (4) forcing state legislatures to stop cutting higher ed and even rebuild its funding. Jordan Weismann has a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/moneybox\/2015\/08\/10\/hillary_clinton_debt_free_college_plan_the_democrats_have_one_big_bold_idea.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehelpful summary\u003C\/a\u003E of the new Democratic consensus.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis combination of elements is a very big deal. It would roll back our de facto federal voucher program for college students in which non-research federal money goes to students who turn it over to the school of their choice in the form of tuition. \u0026nbsp;Many or most states will fight this as they fought Obamacare, and for the same reason--expanding a public service they don't like with new federal money that requires a cost share from them. \u0026nbsp; There will be blood. But we have hit a milestone that might remind some people of the road to Medicare, which established the public-good principle for full health care coverage in retirement, which then made accomplishment the responsibility of public funding.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe third issue is that tuition increases for resident B.A. students are going to stay off the political table. \u0026nbsp;Of course in the short or even medium run, politicians won't actually replace tuition revenues with public funding increases. This is bad news for public U operating budgets, and this is no doubt why short-termers at public universities are \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/blogs.berkeley.edu\/2015\/05\/23\/higher-education\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Epreemptively denouncing free tuition\u003C\/a\u003E. It's good news to people like me who want to see the case for the public funding become politically cheaper by making the case for constant tuition increases politically more expensive. \u0026nbsp;The intellectual and ethical arguments for the public side are there, and now their political price is coming down.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFourth, the senior managers who try to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.co.uk\/2015\/08\/can-faculty-deal-with-policy-drift-list.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Edrift\u003C\/a\u003E near the political center are going to miss it, since it has moved. \u0026nbsp;That is what has been happening in California, where Janet Napolitano thought tuition increases had a few more years of political life than they actually did. \u0026nbsp;Time's almost up for \u003Ci\u003Enon\u003C\/i\u003E-resident tuition increases--there's maybe a year or two more before a major backlash against selling UC flagship seats to non-residents while redirecting residents to the campuses they didn't want. \u0026nbsp;The new center is under active construction and it would be good for the heads of systems to be part of this, which they won't be if they spend their time fighting it.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFifth, the Democrat's means won't achieve their alleged ends. \u0026nbsp;The candidates still propose no-new-taxes positions. \u0026nbsp;They want to pay for the biggest change in university policy in a couple of generations with marginal revenues: the reduction of rich folks' income tax deductions (Mrs. Clinton); a Tobin tax on financial transactions (Mr. Sanders). Both are good ideas for general policy reasons. \u0026nbsp;Neither offers either sufficient money to buy off the states or the deeper principle that would build public support.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThat deeper principle is the public-good value of having a very large number of unindebted people with bachelors degrees. \u0026nbsp;A related principle is that the most efficient way to pay for a public good is with general taxes. You want to increase a public good's consumption (e.g., vaccinations), not ration it with a market price system or carve the revenues up with banks and other providers in an orgy of profit-taking. \u0026nbsp;Everyone can understand this public-good argument if US politicians actually make the argument. \u0026nbsp;The Democrats lost their momentum 40 years ago when they stopped making it, and they won't recover politically until they do--and they may end up giving it to a resurgent third party instead.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo what does this encouraging shift in national politics have to do with Phyllis Wise, the recently resigned-fired-not fired-resigned chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign? \u0026nbsp;She emblemized old-school corporate management that will keep a federal fix away.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere has been plenty of coverage of the most recently turmoil in what has been a bad year for UI brass, culminating in Dr. Wise's resignation that\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2015\/08\/13\/u-illinois-board-rejects-400000-deal-outgoing-chancellor\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ebecame a firing\u003C\/a\u003E that became a resignation again. \u0026nbsp;Corey Robin offers the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/coreyrobin.com\/2015\/08\/14\/wise-throws-down-the-gauntlet-consults-with-lawyers-over-her-legal-options-against-uiuc\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Edefinitive incredulous untangling\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;of last week's events, in which Phyllis Wise resigned, had her resignation rejected by the Board so they could fire her, which led her to threaten them with further disclosure in \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/media.ili.s3.amazonaws.com\/31873_statemento.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ean email\u003C\/a\u003E that was followed by a second resignation letter, which this time was accepted. A sample of Prof. Robin's breakdown:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E1. Salaita\u0026nbsp;is hired but then is told, no, you’re not really hired, so  that he can be fired. Wise is forced to resign, but then is told, no,  you’re not really resigned, so that she can be fired.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E2. Wise complains\u0026nbsp;that not only is she\u0026nbsp;the victim of a university  administration that puts politics above principles and reneges on its  contracts with its employees—all true, by the way—but that such actions  are also “unprecedented.\"\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E3. Suddenly, the UI Board of Trustees is concerned about contracts with its employees. . .. \u003C\/blockquote\u003ESuffice to say that no chicken has ever come so accurately home to roost.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut the deeper problem is the overall practice of management revealed by the initial\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2014\/09\/12\/u-illinois-board-votes-no-salaita-appointment\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Efiring\u003C\/a\u003E of Steven Salaita and the subsequent \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2015\/01\/30\/steven-salaita-university-of-illinois_n_6575046.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Elawsuit\u003C\/a\u003E, discovery, email publication, and\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ccrjustice.org\/sites\/default\/files\/attach\/2015\/08\/59_2015-08-06%20Order%20Granting%20in%20Part%20Denying%20in%20Part%20MTD.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E initial court decision\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;affirming most of the Salaita counts. When the Board found out about Steven Salaita's angry tweets about Israel's Gaza attack last summer, they became completely obsessed with one of the 120 people who were being appointed as professors in the UI system--an associate professor from Virginia Tech that had been hired into a program I doubt any of them had ever heard of before. \u0026nbsp;So there was the lack of an ability to maintain perspective, to set priorities, to decide what is important to the long-term health of the University and what is a side show.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHere we have a fiduciary body that is prone to impulsive politicization. Next, there's the will to intervention from above. The Board of Trustees translated a passionate conviction held by a small, powerful group into an overturning of an elaborately collaborative campus decision, in this case the hiring protocol that had been completed with an offer tended to Prof. Salaita and his acceptance of it. \u0026nbsp;In its move to dismiss his lawsuit, the University claimed that they had never entered into a valid contract with Prof. Salaita, so no abusive intervention was made. In his thorough rejection of this claim, Judge Leinenweber describes various kinds of language that could have made clear the contract was contingent on the board, none of which was used, and then notes that appointment power had been delegated to deans. \u0026nbsp;\"If the deans had no authority to make any binding offers, the University would have been confused as to why 120 professors showed up to work when no one with actual authority had offered them a job\" (\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/ccrjustice.org\/sites\/default\/files\/attach\/2015\/08\/59_2015-08-06%20Order%20Granting%20in%20Part%20Denying%20in%20Part%20MTD.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E19).\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESimilar judgments had been offered by a wide range of UIUC and \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/brian-leiter\/university-of-illinois-re_1_b_5703038.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eother faculty\u003C\/a\u003E a year ago, when the Board still had a chance to calm down and let the hire proceed. They ignored all of these. \u0026nbsp;This second problem is the Board digging into an oppositional relation toward its own university community and internal processes, and the third is the routine insistence that \"no mistakes were made.\"\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere's a further set of bad management practices revealed in \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/academeblog.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/salaita_ocr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EChancellor Wise's emails \u003C\/a\u003Eabout Prof. Salaita. \u0026nbsp;There's the compulsive secrecy about the content and basis of deliberations and decisions, which are then routinely whitewashed in press releases. \u0026nbsp;This has become so common that we hardly notice it anymore, but it means that the larger community lacks the information that would allow it to come to an informed judgment, which is supposed to be the whole point of universities. \u0026nbsp;It also sinks executive groups into the epistemological blindness of their closed circle, which becomes inbred under pressure.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn the Salaita case,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.news-gazette.com\/news\/local\/2015-08-08\/salaita-attorney-more-questions.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Esenior officials had agreed that he had in fact been hired\u003C\/a\u003E, was joining the UIUC faculty, and should be subjected to an unpleasant tongue-lashing from Chancellor Wise when he arrived. \u0026nbsp;They sometime between 7:25 am and 1:55 pm on July 24, 2014, they undecided this and shifted to blocking an appointment they now claimed had never been made. \u0026nbsp;There seems to have been pressure from heavyweight donors that the UIUC administration failed to deflect--another management issue of a lack of independence towards outside interests that are increasingly plutocratic.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe decision must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it meant suppressing the history of the administration's view that he was hired, which they had held as recently as that morning. \u0026nbsp;It meant running with an unconvincing rationale for unhiring Prof. Salaita that subjected them to widespread scorn and the campus to a national boycott, and all for nothing, since their position has now been thrown out of court. \u0026nbsp;What had happened, to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/archives\/2005\/jun\/09\/the-secret-way-to-war\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Equote from another context\u003C\/a\u003E, was that \"the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy.\" The academic world sensed this at the time, but could not prove it, and it was endlessly denied in the administration's public relations campaign that has now been shown to be founded on a lie. \u0026nbsp;This has had very bad consequences for Steven Salaita, but also for the University of Illinois. \u0026nbsp;Complex organizations thrive or decline by trust and goodwill, which underwrite their powers of collaboration. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Wise Affair may seem like an anomaly or a day at the office in the rough and tumble of state politics. \u0026nbsp;So Dr. Wise was trading Steven Salaita for Board chair Christopher Kennedy's support for her College of Medicine proposal, in \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/academeblog.org\/2015\/08\/10\/the-revelations-in-phyllis-wises-emails\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EJohn K. Wilson's valuable reading of the email record\u003C\/a\u003E:\u0026nbsp;what did you expect?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy point is that we have to expect much better. \u0026nbsp;We have to build better academic governance at the state level or the federal bailout will either never happen, or never work. \u0026nbsp;To do this, we'll have to face the fact that the CEO model has failed for universities: to invoke Thorstein Veblen's critique of business reason, the CEO must above all make the sale, and making the sale often requires hiding the truth. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYou may think public universities have been muddling through pretty well with this marketing approach most of the time. \u0026nbsp;I'm sorry to say that you would be wrong. \u0026nbsp;Exhibit A is a quarter-century of declining public funding. Exhibit B is a long list of administrative sins that legislatures trot out to refuse meaningful restorations. \u0026nbsp;Nothing is more likely to block federal solutions than state government's deep distrust of senior university leaders.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003EUniversity of Illinois folk have made good reform suggestions (eg.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/goodenoughprofessor.blogspot.co.uk\/2015\/08\/transparency.html\" style=\"font-family: inherit;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EKirstin Wilcox\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E, \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/views\/2015\/07\/31\/essay-salaita-controversy-after-one-year-and-continuing-concerns-about-academic\" style=\"font-family: inherit;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMichael Rothber\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003Eg,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #141412; font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/Martin F. Manalansan IV and Ellen Moodie**\" style=\"line-height: 28px;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMartin F. Manalansan IV and Ellen Moodie\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"line-height: 28px;\"\u003E), all\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"line-height: 28px;\"\u003Eof\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"line-height: 28px;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;which\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;involve something we thought we had-- an open university, freestyle discussion, and bottom-up forms of planning. These moves towards active governance by faculty and staff are as important as the public funding policy changes. \u0026nbsp;We won't get close even to\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003Ethe funding reforms of\u003Cspan style=\"font-family: inherit;\"\u003E\u0026nbsp;Hillary Clinton's unless we can get past the management model of Phyllis Wise.\u003C\/span\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/6703934676215083757\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/08\/hillary-clinton-and-phyllis-wise-signs.html#comment-form","title":"5 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/6703934676215083757"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/6703934676215083757"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/08\/hillary-clinton-and-phyllis-wise-signs.html","title":"HIllary Clinton and Phyllis Wise: Signs of Better Things"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Chris Newfield"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/01078395415386100872"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-SOVa_7tqmMA\/Vc8wZWEOCAI\/AAAAAAAAC94\/hvylhHWWHaY\/s72-c\/Phyllis%2BWise%2Bin%2BOffice.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"5"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170716682680204889.post-7410212355777754658"},"published":{"$t":"2015-03-11T17:03:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-03-18T18:30:11.349-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Administrative Overreach"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Protests"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Students"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"UC Irvine"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Crisis over Expression Continues at UC Irvine"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-DCmqO_fcRew\/VQCnrQyP8EI\/AAAAAAAAAno\/QwGinqGLdng\/s1600\/atheistical%2Brevolution.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-DCmqO_fcRew\/VQCnrQyP8EI\/AAAAAAAAAno\/QwGinqGLdng\/s1600\/atheistical%2Brevolution.jpg\" height=\"221\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EYesterday, a meeting of the UC Irvine student government Legislative Council was cancelled due to what campus police determined was a \"\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/news.uci.edu\/press-releases\/uci-legislative-council-meeting-scheduled-for-tonight-cancelled-due-to-violence-threat\/\"\u003Eviable threat of violence associated with the recent controversy over the display of national flags in the lobby of student government offices.\u003C\/a\u003E\" Chancellor Gillman issued an accompanying statement decrying the threat of violence and declaring \"\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/news.uci.edu\/press-releases\/uci-legislative-council-meeting-scheduled-for-tonight-cancelled-due-to-violence-threat\/\"\u003ERegardless of your opinion on the display of the American flag, we must be united in protecting the people who make this university a premier institution of higher learning\u003C\/a\u003E.\" \u0026nbsp;This cancellation and threat of violence follows several days in which the student officers who had supported the removal of flags from a portion of the student government building \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newuniversity.org\/2015\/03\/news\/40936\/\"\u003Ehad been receiving various forms of abuse, threats, and condemnation\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EAlthough the Chancellor is to be commended for yesterday's statement decrying violence and threats against the student representatives,\u0026nbsp;noticeably missing was any consideration or recognition of the role that his prior statements may have had in legitimating the demonization of the students. \u0026nbsp;You can find his earlier statement \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chancellor.uci.edu\/about\/writings-and-remarks\/2015\/150308-statement-on-asuci-actions.html\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp;Several things stand out in the statement:\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EFirst is his claim that \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chancellor.uci.edu\/about\/writings-and-remarks\/2015\/150308-statement-on-asuci-actions.html\"\u003Eit was outrageous and indefensible that they would question the appropriateness of displaying the American flag on this great campus\u003C\/a\u003E.\" \u0026nbsp;Chancellor Gillman is a constitutional scholar. Is he really saying that \"questioning\" the \"appropriateness\" of flying the flag on a college campus is \"indefensible\"? \u0026nbsp;Are we really to understand that at Irvine a discussion or debate about the meanings of national symbols (even our own) is now off the table? \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EThe second thing is his pointed thanks \"\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chancellor.uci.edu\/about\/writings-and-remarks\/2015\/150308-statement-on-asuci-actions.html\"\u003Eto a member of our outstanding ROTC program, who volunteered to stand guard over the disputed flag while this issue was being resolved\u003C\/a\u003E.\" \u0026nbsp;Suggesting that there was a need to \"stand guard over the disputed flag\" implies that the flag itself was under some sort of threat. \u0026nbsp;But what exactly was that threat? \u0026nbsp;Being moved to a different location? \u0026nbsp;Being folded up and given to the ASUCI President to keep \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newuniversity.org\/2015\/03\/news\/40936\/\"\u003Eas was done on a previous occasion\u003C\/a\u003E? \u0026nbsp;These are threats? Implying that the vote implied a physical threat to the flag casts the student representatives as potential threats (leaving aside the fact that even Flag Burning has been declared protected speech by the Supreme Court). \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003ENow Chancellor Gillman insisted in his statement that if the students had acted \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chancellor.uci.edu\/about\/writings-and-remarks\/2015\/150308-statement-on-asuci-actions.html\"\u003Ein a private capacity and expressing personal views then there would be no reason to pay attention\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026nbsp;But frankly this seems like a fig leaf. \u0026nbsp;After all, the Chancellor issued his statement after the resolution had been vetoed by the Executive Council of the student government so there was no need for his condemnation. \u0026nbsp;Of course, I understand that some had spread a story about the resolution to parts of the media and that the Chancellor may have been worried about fundraising and political fallout. \u0026nbsp;But it is precisely when the principle of free debate is challenged that it is most incumbent on campus leaders to stand clearly in defense of it. \u0026nbsp;On March 8th the Chancellor did not do so.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EThere is an irony in this situation. \u0026nbsp;In the fall, UC was treated to statements issued by Chancellors on the necessity of civility in debate. \u0026nbsp;At the time, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2014\/09\/the-order-of-civility.html\"\u003EI discussed the dangers of coercion \u003C\/a\u003Ein this insistence on administratively demanded civility. \u0026nbsp;But here, if there is any incivility it is in the language of the Chancellor and the personal attacks on UCI Facebook and elsewhere against the student sponsors. Anyone reading \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.asuci.uci.edu\/legislative\/legislations\/R50-70.html\"\u003Ethe actual resolution\u003C\/a\u003E--whatever they think of it in the end--could hardly consider it uncivil. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EThere have been \u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com\/2015\/03\/political-science-lesson-media.html\" style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003Esuggestions\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E that moments like this suggest that University administration's should more forcefully distance themselves from student governments. \u0026nbsp;But that seems, unnecessary, unwise\u0026nbsp;and unlikely to make a difference. \u0026nbsp;Anyone who confuses student governments with campus administrations or faculties is unlikely to be persuaded by some formal declaration. \u0026nbsp;Doing so would simply reduce a sense of shared enterprise on campuses. \u0026nbsp;And finally, the most appropriate stance for an administration in a case like this would have been a simple statement that it was a matter of the student government, that the administration was confident that its students would work that matter out, and that the appropriate thing would be for everyone else to allow the debate to take its course and ask questions if they wished. \u0026nbsp;Unfortunately that is not what was done.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EHere are some links for those of you who are interested:\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EThe \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.asuci.uci.edu\/legislative\/legislations\/R50-70.html\"\u003EActual Resolution\u003C\/a\u003E on the Flag Location.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EThe \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newuniversity.org\/2015\/03\/news\/40936\/\"\u003Emost detailed reporting\u003C\/a\u003E that I have found on the background to the Resolution\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003EThe \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/chancellor.uci.edu\/about\/writings-and-remarks\/2015\/150308-statement-on-asuci-actions.html\"\u003EChancellor's Statement\u003C\/a\u003E of March\u0026nbsp;8\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/2015\/03\/09\/state-senators-propose-amendment-prevent-banning-u-s-flags-university-college-campuses\/\"\u003ESome information\u003C\/a\u003E on Legislative Outrage\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/1t1ZhPZN2ohzgARuXwQUCwbB3YXNPgXGZQMI8heUYZnQ\/viewform\"\u003EA Petition\u003C\/a\u003E in Support of the Students who proposed the Resolution.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;\"\u003E\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/feeds\/7410212355777754658\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/03\/crisis-over-expression-continues-at-uc.html#comment-form","title":"7 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/7410212355777754658"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1170716682680204889\/posts\/default\/7410212355777754658"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/utotherescue.blogspot.com\/2015\/03\/crisis-over-expression-continues-at-uc.html","title":"Crisis over Expression Continues at UC Irvine"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Michael Meranze"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/05336793340375780406"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"16","height":"16","src":"https:\/\/img1.blogblog.com\/img\/b16-rounded.gif"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-DCmqO_fcRew\/VQCnrQyP8EI\/AAAAAAAAAno\/QwGinqGLdng\/s72-c\/atheistical%2Brevolution.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"7"}}]}});