Inside the Corporate University

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3931
Date Written:  2013-08-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2013
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX19873

Recent corporate transformation of the university, the profit-driven research orientation and the direction of instruction to the requirements of the private sector discourages faculty from finding common cause with other constituencies. The article looks into problems of neoliberal university and how to help create a genuine university community.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt

Despite a long and noble history of faculty involvement in social justice issues, there is surprisingly little evidence lately of organized faculty activism directed at specific causes. This quiescence is often attributed to neoliberalism, the corporatization of the university, and the cultural hostility toward a professoriat perceived to be aligned with the left.

While many bemoan what they believe to be the recent corporate transformation of the university, the profit-driven research orientation and the direction of instruction to the requirements of the private sector, the struggle over the nature of university education — whether it should be geared toward the needs of business or humanity — actually dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.