ivashkiv blog funky 14
It is interesting to consider colleges and universities in Anderson’s context of private government. Anderson equates private companies with private governments. Anderson outlines various reasons why this is the case. Her thesis more or less lies on the argument that the Industrial Revolution changed the course of capitalism, as it allowed certain companies to monopolize efficiency. This change disallowed self-employment in a variety of industries, and those people needed to find jobs at factories - “With the Industrial Revolution, the pervasiveness of markets in labor returned manufacturing workers to an even deeper state of subjection to their superiors than before” (36).
Whether true or not, the narrative that a college education is a prerequisite for a good job is popular. I think this notion is similar in its effects on the educational space as the Industrial Revolution's relevance to the job market. Students are incentivized to go to college and will take out lofty loans to do so. One might object that the true value of a college education is not the promise of a job, but rather the intrinsic experience. While true for some, Covid has shown that students generally value college for the degree. Almost no college has lowered their tuition costs. Most students have returned to online or hybrid college. Online college is an inferior product to an in-person college experience in terms of the intrinsic value of a college education. So, the value of a college experience is not what students pay for.
The college model has students as customers/shareholders and Professors as employees, if the college is supposed to increase intellectual breadth. However, given the fact that students generally value college for the career benefits, colleges have not invested their money set aside for employees in Professors. At many universities, there are a vast number of dean and provost positions. You could argue on either side whether these positions lead to administrative efficiencies, or if they actually create bureaucracies that accrue financial costs. Either way, the end goal is not to further educate the student. Rather, these positions promise to increase student welfare, a tool used to advertise that specific school to high schoolers. If education was the only goal of college, then this money would go to hire more faculty to lower class sizes. Another reason to award this money to Professors would be to ensure that the guiding forces in the college’s decisions would be the Professors and students. This would constitute what it means to have an educational structure. Having administrators dictate the college’s decisions raises the question if colleges have adopted a corporate structure. If this is the case, then Anderson’s allegations against corporations would be valid in the context of college.
Anderson lays claim that “there is no adequate substitute for recognizing workers’ voice in their government” (43). Who makes the decisions at a college? I am not completely sure, but I am somewhat confident that high-level members of the administration - president, various deans, wealthy members of the board of trustees - play a large role. They are at least the ones who implement and carry out the decisions. Perhaps the administration wants the same things as the Professors and students, but this is not always the case. It is not uncommon for students to hold protests, which faculty support, that end prematurely without any of their proposals enacted by the college.
Whether true or not, the narrative that a college education is a prerequisite for a good job is popular. I think this notion is similar in its effects on the educational space as the Industrial Revolution's relevance to the job market. Students are incentivized to go to college and will take out lofty loans to do so. One might object that the true value of a college education is not the promise of a job, but rather the intrinsic experience. While true for some, Covid has shown that students generally value college for the degree. Almost no college has lowered their tuition costs. Most students have returned to online or hybrid college. Online college is an inferior product to an in-person college experience in terms of the intrinsic value of a college education. So, the value of a college experience is not what students pay for.
The college model has students as customers/shareholders and Professors as employees, if the college is supposed to increase intellectual breadth. However, given the fact that students generally value college for the career benefits, colleges have not invested their money set aside for employees in Professors. At many universities, there are a vast number of dean and provost positions. You could argue on either side whether these positions lead to administrative efficiencies, or if they actually create bureaucracies that accrue financial costs. Either way, the end goal is not to further educate the student. Rather, these positions promise to increase student welfare, a tool used to advertise that specific school to high schoolers. If education was the only goal of college, then this money would go to hire more faculty to lower class sizes. Another reason to award this money to Professors would be to ensure that the guiding forces in the college’s decisions would be the Professors and students. This would constitute what it means to have an educational structure. Having administrators dictate the college’s decisions raises the question if colleges have adopted a corporate structure. If this is the case, then Anderson’s allegations against corporations would be valid in the context of college.
Anderson lays claim that “there is no adequate substitute for recognizing workers’ voice in their government” (43). Who makes the decisions at a college? I am not completely sure, but I am somewhat confident that high-level members of the administration - president, various deans, wealthy members of the board of trustees - play a large role. They are at least the ones who implement and carry out the decisions. Perhaps the administration wants the same things as the Professors and students, but this is not always the case. It is not uncommon for students to hold protests, which faculty support, that end prematurely without any of their proposals enacted by the college.
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