With the passing of each week it has become increasingly clear that bureaucrats, legislators and educational administrators are little more than hedge fund operators willing to sell their stock in higher education, opting instead to invest in the next big profit generator. But no one seems to know what that is, only that it exists. Somewhere. And, golly, we should put money into it.
Adding up the losses: the struggle for affordable higher education
With the passing of each week it has become increasingly clear that bureaucrats, legislators and educational administrators are little more than hedge fund operators willing to sell their stock in higher education, opting instead to invest in the next big profit generator. But no one seems to know what that is, only that it exists. Somewhere. And, golly, we should put money into it.
What we do know is that while ideas for education reform litter the political battleground, students and faculty are digging deeper into already empty pockets with the hope of finding a lost five dollar bill. The bourgeoisie standing up to fight against the capitalist, bureaucratic regime for an equitable higher education system is like going up against the Roman Empire, agrarian-style: with pitchforks and butter knives.
Portland State is sitting on a surplus of more than $54 million while full-time faculty battle for fair wages. The Associated Students of Portland State University set aside $500,000 for a new student union building that hasn’t even left the maybe-it’s-possible phase while its Student Fee Committee has moved from setting budgets for student organizations to telling them what they should do in order to have a budget at all. All of this is done for the “betterment” of PSU.
How is it better when less than a month into 2012, students were told that the cost of summer tuition increased by 9 percent and that the cost of tuition for the entire 2012–13 academic year will increase by 7 to 9 percent? Or that student loan interest rates will double in July?
How is it better that the new budget model unveiled by PSU administration reinforces profit generation? This model could potentially strip academic programs of critical resources, leading to a less diverse curriculum and the constant fear of whole programs facing the guillotine if it fails to meet its profit quota. Roy Koch, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs is quoted in the Vanguard as saying that this new budget model will “make a much clearer connection between the things we do and the money that those things generate,” [“University announces new budget model,” Feb. 7] Clearly, it’s about profit, profit, profit.
How is it better that current student fees are allocated to a project tentatively scheduled for 2020? We can voice our opinions on what’s missing from SMSU, but if and when a new student union building is built, it will be funded in part by students who won’t even be around to see its completion.
Raising tuition, suppressing pay increases for faculty and offering fewer tenure-track positions, reclassifying student employee positions, and transitioning to a performance-based budget model equates to a win-win for PSU, Inc. The university needs to generate money but its reasoning is far from transparent. Where will this money go? It’s clearly not going to faculty or students. While money is being funneled into real estate developments and feasibility studies, students rally against the rising costs of higher education with the hope of forcing legislators to change their minds. But lobbying legislators, stomping our feet and crying foul is as effective as lobbing a spitwad at the class bully and asking for remuneration.
So while the topic of higher education is being bandied about by legislators and administrators like a hot potato no one wants to hold, those that truly benefit from higher education are left to wave a flag of protest in the wind and debate which flavor of Top Ramen to have for dinner.
