Here’s another must-read for today. This spells out what I’ve been saying for the last decade+: US higher ed is going off a cliff. But it’s by someone who does his homework and is less feral and ragey than me. In his analysis, C-19 will cause widespread catastrophe, but as in all other fires, it’s not the fuel, it’s just one spark.
The point: US faculties, if you don’t organize Real Soon Now your fields and maybe you will be seriously, structurally, irreparably screwed. I know, I know: “Oh yeah, Mr. Smartypants, so what should we do?” / “You’re blaming the victim — it’s the state legislatures!” / “It’s a wicked problem!” / “Harvard will be fine” / “Are you kidding? We’re already working triple time!” / “My job is already touch-and-go!” / etc, etc. People, these are excuses, and like most excuses they mainly serve to avoid having a Serious Conversation About What Is To Be Done.
So, WITBD? You may have heard that there are some people protesting in the streets? Like that, but on and around campuses and capitols. And you may have heard that some of the people marching are black? Like that, but with students. Now, what I just said is really bad, because, in classic dopey white supremacy style, I just implied that faculty are white. they aren’t, and even hinting at that it is wrong. But here’s the thing: the reason US HE is fkd is it costs too much. And because it costs too much, students are driven into debt of a particular kind: we call it ‘student debt,’ but it’s become really, actually a form of indentured servitude. And that, my learned friends, is a kind of slavery. That’s not a metaphor, it’s the lived reality of tens of millions of people whose lives and hopes are needlessly dragged down by a ‘debt’ they can never erase. So my point isn’t that all faculty are white, it’s that in many ways (including really) students aren’t — because, in the US now, to be a student in HE is to be on the wrong side of a profoundly immoral divide in our political economy. It was and remains wrong to divide people on the basis of ‘race,’ and it’s wrong to do so on the basis of their needs, abilities, and aspirations. My analogy is wrong, but my point is right: education should be free as in speech and free as in beer. The US can afford it. You may have heard that those protestors are getting cities to cut police budgets? Like that, but you need to figure out what other budgets can be cut to make education if not free then at least genuinely affordable. And that, btw, would be an immense contribution to so many other struggles, BLM foremost among them.
This is futile, but worth saying: you need to organize now. If you wait, many of you will be fighting for your jobs, which is a very different struggle and won’t be seen by the public any more kindly than it is in any other setting. If you start organizing now you’ll be fighting not just for your own interest but for a greater good that mainly benefits others. There are tens of millions of those people, and many of them will support your cause. (Yes, I know, lots of you have student debt too — ‘intersectionality.’) You need to get working while it’s urgent and before it becomes a full-blown emergency. If Galloway is right, and I’m certain he is, that will happen in a matter of months.
I recommend that you look at Galloway’s “worksheet” (link in the comments): HE institutions are alphabetical on the left and his prognosis for each one is on the far right. He divides schools into four categories: perish, struggle, survive, or thrive. Find yours and think about what it’d mean for your world if he’s correct. There’s lots to quibble with, in part because his analysis is quantitative. But debating whether his methods are valid won’t achieve anything, it’ll just waste time at a very urgent turn.