Sate legislatures all over the nation are attempting to apply a “corporate model” to higher education, but perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the state of Texas. The day before yesterday (Wednesday) Hunter Rawlings, the president of the Association of the American Universities (AAU), spoke before the Joint Committee on Oversight of Higher Education in Austin, Texas. Here are some quotes from Dr. Rawlings:
“Research universities are not for-profit companies,” he noted, but added that this fact does not exempt them from the need to be efficient. He also said that when universities are reduced to producing a high volume of degrees that are “cheap in content as well as dollars,” it reduces “the classroom to an assembly line, the library to a book repository, and the laboratory to a for-profit business.”
When asked what the results would be of applying a corporate model to universities, Rawlings answered that it would be “reductionist” and outcomes would be measured by criteria inappropriate and “wrong-headed.”
“We are not completely utilitarian institutions,” Rawlings said. Students, he said, “are not cogs in a machine or mute products.”
If you would like to read an article on the meeting where Rawlings spoke, here is a link:
http://www.americanindependent.com/195192/higher-education-experts-weigh-in-during-oversight-committee’s-first-meeting
Have a nice weekend!!
