Public higher education is facing an existential crisis caused by neoliberal ideology and its voracious corporatizing logic. Neoliberalism is best understood as a set of socioeconomic and market-driven policies that propagate austerity by cutting government spending on public expenditures. This ultimately leads to the privatization and corporatization of public goods and services, such as health care, welfare, and education. With the steep decline in state support for public higher ed especially since the Great Recession, the so-called “public university” has largely been supplanted by a neoliberal university, bringing with it structural changes and increased internal and external disruptions. At the same time, neoliberalism is directly responsible for the imposition of precarity and job insecurity on most members of the faculty and staff. Today, the vast majority of faculty are denied access to tenure-track positions and are thus relegated to the status of lower-paid, contingent labor, while the declining numbers on the tenure-track are often induced to embrace academic entrepreneurialism in order to guarantee tenure and promotion. As Jason Del Gandio argues, “Tenure and academic freedom are being dissolved by a system driven by corporate logic rather than by the free exchange of ideas” (Del Gandio, 2014).

Consequently, most administrators are now tasked with “managing” austerity and enticing private donors and corporate entities to offset institutional funding no longer provided for by the state. In return for their investments, corporate technocrats have been given undue influence to restructure the composition of public universities. For example, they have assumed responsibility for the licensing, marketing, and selling of clothing, food, housing, lab materials, learning management systems, textbooks, and other educationally-related materials. In addition, names of corporate brands are often enshrined in the titles of distinguished chairs, college programs and departments, campus buildings, and sports stadiums. What’s even more concerning is the method by which corporations are able to influence the curriculum of a growing number of business schools, STEM programs, and professional degrees.

Now, does anybody really believe corporate enterprises venture into the realm of public universities because they care about the intrinsic value of education? Not so much. In actuality, most advocates of market-driven higher education see it as a source for potential profit extraction and where the next generation of neoliberal bureaucrats will be trained. Neoliberalism also fundamentally alters the relationship of students to the university itself as they are transformed from seekers of knowledge, truth, and critical thinking into consumers of highly priced educational products, i.e., courses, grades, degrees. Moreover, this process shifts a greater portion of the financial burden to fund the institution onto students and their families through the increase in tuition and fees, which necessitates that students work multiple jobs or go into debt to further their education.

We should also remain cognizant of the not so covert racial motive behind the ideology of neoliberalism. It was on the heels of Black people and other people of color gaining greater access to “civil society” in the post-Civil Rights era that neoliberalism became hegemonic. This retrenchment is clearly illustrated by examining the recent history of the California State University (CSU). In 2017, the California Faculty Association (CFA) released a report titled, “Equity Interrupted: How California is Cheating its Future,” which documents how persistent neoliberal budget cuts corresponded with the growing numbers of students of color entering the CSU system. In 1985, students of color constituted just 26.8% of the CSU population, while the system received 4.4% ($2.8 billion) of the California state budget. However, by 2015 when the percentage of students of color had increased to 62% and the overall student population had grown by 40%, the state spent only 2.4% ($2.7 billion) of its total budget on the CSU system. The reduction in public funding amounted to a real dollar decline to per student spending from $11,607 in 1985 to $6,888 in 2015, which is a cut of over 40%!

To challenge the neoliberal university we must look to the examples of our fellow unionized K-12 teachers, who have been struggling against the privatization of public education. This is precisely why we established Cal State LA Faculty Organizing for Racial, Gender, and Economic Justice (FORGE Justice), which is a newly formed caucus of union activists in CFA-LA. Our primary objective is to fight the manifestations of neoliberalism on our campus, particularly how it intersects with and amplifies other forms of social oppression, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. We will forge a more democratic and member-driven union in order to enforce our contract and mobilize for a stronger contract in 2020. We will also organize to abolish the two-tier faculty system that disenfranchises and hyper-exploits Lecturer faculty. We will specifically agitate for more equitable state funding, inclusive classrooms, improved learning and teaching conditions, and a just campus climate that is responsive to our students’ and our own diverse needs. Finally, we will work to ensure that The People’s University (California State University) returns to its historic mission of providing accessible, affordable, and quality education, as well as expand upon it by advocating to make the CSU free for all students. Will you join us in this fight?

 

Works Cited

California Faculty Association, “Equity Interrupted: How California is Cheating its Future,” https://www.calfac.org/item/equity-interrupted-how-california-cheating-its-future.

Del Gandio, Jason, “Neoliberalism, Higher Education, and the Rise of Contingent Faculty Labor,” Political Research Associates, 15 October 2014, www.politicalresearch.org.