Imagine a small, liberal arts, non-profit college in the heart of Albany, NY. We are a community of critical thinkers, social-justice warriors, and known for our emphasis on our liberal arts tradition. We have molded the best of educators, but even more so, the best of people.We have prided ourselves in our sense of community.
The professors have these nifty things called “shared governance,” “tenure” and “academic freedom.” Shared governance, for instance, “calls for shared responsibility among the different components of institutional government and specifies areas of primary responsibility for governing boards, administrations, and faculties.” The expertise of the faculty must be heard, respected and used in all academic decisions (including cutting and downsizing programs). While, the president, higher administrators, and the board have the sole responsibility to keep the institution financially afloat; nothing more and nothing less. In relation to the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, “College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution.” Institutions of higher education aren’t supposed to be top-down hierarchies.
But times are a changing at Saint Rose, and not for the better.
On December 11th, 2015, my college campus community was shattered. Twenty-three tenure and tenure-track faculty were fired, along with twenty-eight programs cut. The Board of Trustees, our president, and our higher administration cry, “We did it for YOU!” They spoon-feed us that it’s because of the “Nine Million Dollar Deficit!” but we know better. It’s enough already. We’ve read the books. We’ve done the research. It’s not about the money.
We know what is up, stop playin’ us.
My small, liberal arts, non-profit college is following the trend of the corporatization of higher education. Our professors should not be treated as pawns in The Hunger Games. They shouldn’t be prosecuted for preserving the mission of our college (which, is in fact, one of their jobs as faculty). We are now working to serve incoming freshmen what they want at this exact moment, rather than what they need for the rest of their lives as both global citizens and critical thinkers. We are basing these decisions on incoming freshmen that will change their major multiple times throughout the course of their time in undergrad alone. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think putting the future of higher education in the hands of incoming freshmen will help us out in the long term. No offense. This is only one sliver of the bigger picture.
I fear the cultivation of a passive society through further enforcing the stigma that humanities and social sciences don’t matter because they do not render instantaneous cash-profit. I fear that students will no longer be able to explore their interests if colleges keep following this business model. I fear that programs such as sociology, women and gender studies, philosophy, religious studies, American studies are only going to be provided at elite institutions. I am terrified of losing equal educational opportunities for every student from every background. These cuts represent the fear behind having a rising society who can break the beloved comfort levels of our society. I am witnessing before my very eyes that my peers feel that it is wrong to question authority in the face of injustice. Higher education isn’t only a vehicle for getting a job,that’s just the fries on the side.
My College President earned an award from the Albany Business Review for being a “disruptor” in her “business” to stay “with the trends.” I laughed and laughed until I cried. I was utterly amazed that they would accept such an award for firing faculty and cutting programs. However, it also made sense to me why they would. When you are so invested in what you have been taught to be for the collective good, your humanity decomposes. When you are so convinced of your own lies and delusions even the blatant truth cannot get through to you.
If being at Saint Rose has taught me anything, it is that you can both love, disagree and have a logically and critically driven examination of that very thing all at once. I have learned that when you do love something, you educate yourself and then you fight for it until your lungs give out.
I am not here to be the administration's consumer for their business. I am here to stand with our faculty, prospective and current students, the future of our college, and my education.
