Sophie Massey ’15 hosted a discussion on Critical University Studies featuring students from hir student forum and a guest speaker from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Abigail Boggs ’02. This discussion, held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, arose out of criticism of higher education that has been developing over the last two decades.
In publicizing the event, Massey explained the nature of Critical University Studies.
“Critical University Studies is an interdisciplinary area of study that focuses on applying an analytical, ‘critical’ lens to the university—its politics, histories, and economies,” Massey wrote on the Facebook event page for the discussion. “Some focuses of the discipline include: increasing student debt loads, the precarious conditions of academic labor, perpetuation of inequality, student movements, the corporatization of the university, questions of how knowledge is (or should be) created, and institutional branding.”
Massey, an anthropology major, is currently writing a thesis that deals with issues in this field. Hir work began during hir first year at Wesleyan as ze explored professor-student relationships in hir Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class. From there, ze began exploring the University as a business and was led to Critical University Studies.
This year, Massey collaborated with Professor of Anthropology and
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American Studies Margot Weiss to teach a student forum on Critical University Studies, the first formal course taught in the field at the University. Weiss stated that Critical University Studies has been explored for a long time: people have investigated the history of universities, who these institutions are for, and what their function is in society.
“People are exploring the funding of the university and the use of corporate models for the university, considering what’s most profitable, responding to students as customers…and thinking about the university as a marketplace of ideas,” Weiss said.
As Boggs assisted Massey in facilitating the discussion on Tuesday, she posed a question at the root of Critical University Studies as a field.
“If universities are going to occupy this position of power…what are we going to do about it?” Boggs said. “How can we…create forms of knowledge, classes, models of teaching or models of thought that do something different?”
About 30 people attended the event, a public discussion between faculty members and University students. It began with individual introductions in which students stated either something they love about the University or something that frustrates them about it.
Students and faculty alike claimed that love and appreciation of the University comes from being able to engage in and create spaces for discussions like the one that was currently taking place. They also mentioned the benefits of student groups and activism on campus as well as a love of learning in general.
The frustrations voiced in the discussion outweighed the loved aspects of the University that people mentioned. Students around the room claimed dissatisfaction with the way classes are structured, the cost of education, the increased focus on occupational tracks, a culture of competition among peers, the idea that student capacity is measured by faculty and administrators, and the differences between student goals and the broader goals of the University itself.
Xinyu Zhu ’16 specifically commented on the mental health of students and how the social environment contributes to stress.
“The University perpetuates competition, stress, and anxiety,” Zhu said.
A common frustration of the group was the disparity between issues that are discussed theoretically in classroom settings and the actual actions taken by the University. Students challenged the idea of “Diversity University,” a phrase that is used to publicize the University, in relation to their perceptions of the lack of commitment and work that has actually been put in to sustain this type of community.
Students further cited the lack of support and funding for the African American Studies Program. At the end of the 2013-2014 school year, two faculty members who were teaching African American Studies courses left the University, resulting in the disappearance of almost half the courses previously offered. University students called for a reprioritization of this program and its students.
African American Studies was one of the three categories that Massey and the students in her forum decided to focus on collectively. In addition, small student groups presented on Greek life at the University and the role class difference plays on campus.
In their discussion of Greek life, students questioned the effectiveness of closing residential fraternities or making them coeducational. They claimed fraternities encourage, and sometimes require, community service and are often venues for open events on campus that can foster community bonding. There has also been a rise in Greek organizations specifically for Jewish students, LGBTQ students, and students of color.
They pointed out that Greek organizations are places to foster connections and gain professional opportunities. Alumni who belonged to Greek organizations, they pointed out, collectively contribute 75 percent of the donations given to all universities.
The group questioned whether the problems that have arisen on college campuses that are currently associated with Greek organizations are actually universal problems on college campuses that arise from a culture of binge drinking.
The discussion took into account certain statistics in opposition to this point—for instance, that there is one hazing-related death every year in the United States and that fraternity members are three times more likely to sexually assault someone than students who do not belong to a Greek organization.
The next group argued that upper-middle class students are heavily represented at universities and that education has become a luxury. The group pointed out that the population of students on most college campuses is not reflective of the broader United States.
Pointing out that dropout rates are much higher for low-income students, they argued that universities have become a mechanism for perpetuating income inequality.
Keren Alshanetsky ’17, a student participating in the Critical University Studies student forum, spoke to this issue.
“A lot of people think that universities act as ‘equalizers,’ which can actually silence discussions about class [among students], because we feel like we are all here, coming from a place of privilege,” Alshantesky said.
Once the student forum students had finished presenting, Massey opened up the discussion to all the students in the room. The conversation then shifted to marginalization of University service workers, including those, working for Sun Services, Bon Appétit, and landscaping services.
Students took issue with the exclusion of these workers from the University community and pointed to problems of invisibility and language barriers. Another problem that was discussed was an alleged lack of transparency regarding the University’s allocation of funds: students have no way of knowing whether or not these employees are receiving fair wages for the amount of hours they work.
One chief complaint of the faculty at the event was about the growing number of visiting professors being hired on campus. Weiss spoke about this issue both in a national sense and regarding the University specifically.
“Seventy-five percent of all college courses in the U.S. are taught by non-tenured, or tenured-track, faculty—by visiting faculty who teach one course or are paid per course,” Weiss said. “They don’t receive health care, benefits, [or] living wages in any way. That’s not true at Wesleyan, but adjunct faculty who can be paid per course are much, much cheaper than tenured-track faculty, so that’s been a long-term transformation.”
Boggs spoke about returning to campus as an alumna and thinking about some of the issues posed by students during the discussion.
“It definitely feels like a great number of issues that were at play when I was here have yet to be resolved or dealt with, which is not surprising given the cycle of student time, but is also…depressing,” Boggs said. “But it is also exciting to see students coming together and thinking critically about these questions, and who seemingly have the desire to affect change.”
Massey’s forum has been an introduction to Critical University Studies for most of the students in the forum. In designing the course, Massey wanted to move beyond the typical lecture and discussion format of most university classes.
Massey described some of the different ways ze and hir students have collectively explored the material, among them watching a documentary called “Ivory Tower” and hosting guest speakers such as Public Safety and University Relations.
Ze described an investigative project the students participated in that explored the University by visiting professors’ offices or Special Collections and Archives or attending tours and info sessions. The final project will be more creative, and ze hopes it will involve students learning through art.
Weiss emphasized that although the field has been growing, there is still a lack of formal avenues for students to explore Critical University Studies.
“There are not very many courses in [Critical University Studies]…” Weiss said. “We’re sort of at the cutting edge here.”
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