Lydia Leary

Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney

An Imperfect Institution
The analysis of problems in higher education
It is seemingly clear, throughout countless articles and research that
there is a lot to be said and thought about in regards to what is going on in
Higher Education. Throughout all of the articles analyzed, Obtaining
Integrity by Adrianna Kezar, Research and the Bottom Line in Todays
University by Sarah Bonewits and Lawrence Soley, Deconstructing
Academe: The Birth of Critical University Studies by Jeffrey Williams, Out of
the Ruins, the University to Come by Bob Hanke and Alison Hearn, and
Linking Diversity with the Educational and Civic Missions of higher
Education by Sylvia Hurtado, it is clear that all of these have one thing in
common, they all are written to bring attention to these problems in higher
education. There were three main camps and clusters that I found while
reading these articles. I found these topics by analyzing the articles then
picking the topics that I thought were the most frequently talked about and
important. I first found that a central theme that many of the articles spoke
about was Academic Capitalism. I then found that Diversity and Higher
Education was another camp. The last camp that I discovered was the
emergence of Critical University Studies.
The first camp that I discovered was academic capitalism. This is a
term that is used in more than one of the articles that we have read.

Academic capitalism, as described through these articles, is the corporate

takeover of universities. There are many subtopics the fall below this camp,
like how these corporations have affected the research and what is taught at
these universities, it talks about corporate funded universities and how they
are affecting the school in a myriad of ways, and lastly it talks about
neoliberalism and economics.
The first subtopic that falls below the main camp of Academic
Capitalism is the topic of research. This is mainly discussed in the article
written by Bonewits and Soley. In this article they directly address that there
are issues in research due to the influence of corporations. Bonewits and
Soley explicitly state at the very beginning of their article that research and
education are being affected by corporate involvement, This paper will look
at examples which suggest that public colleges and universities, particularly
research institutions are becoming permeated with corporate involvementinvolvement which is likely to shape the research conducted on campus, the
content of the academic curriculum, the university's staffing patterns and the
way it makes decisions (Bonewits and Soley). Another subtopic in this camp
is the focus on corporate funded universities. This can be seen in the articles
written by Williams, Bonewits and Soley, Kezar, and Hanke and Hearn. The
last subtopic for this camp is the idea of neoliberalism and the economic
effect that corporations have on Universities. This is mainly discussed
throughout the article by Kezar. This article directly addresses how
corporations focus more on economic gain and money and less on the good

of the students, faculty, staff, etc. All of these articles in this camp tie in
together with one another. They are all focused on academic capitalism but
each one has its own take on the subject.
The next camp that I discovered was the emergence of Critical
University Studies. This camp is very similar to the first. Critical University
Studies is the study of what is happening to these universities and how there
is continually more corporate involvement in these Universities. This is talked
about throughout Williams article.
In the article by Williams, he brings forth the term that he calls Critical
University Studies, This wave constitutes what Heather Steffen, a graduate
student in literary and cultural studies with whom I have worked at Carnegie
Mellon University, and I think is an emerging field of critical university
studies (Williams). This wave that Williams is referring to is anything that
deals with Higher Education and what is wrong with it. He believes that with
all the talk, investigations and studies about High Education it needs to be a
field of its own. This camp is very closely related to the first camp, the topic
of academic capitalism. At the end of the article Williams makes it clear that
it is up to students today to analyze the issues and decide what needs to be
done.
The last camp that I found was the topic of Diversity and Higher
Education. This topic is illustrated throughout the article by Hurtado. In this
article she illustrates that students need to go beyond what is taught and
they need to learn how to think and gain skills needed to better society. She

believes that students need to gain these abilities because we are the next
generation and we need to learn how to solve our societal problems. This
article closely ties in with the idea of Critical University studies, because both
are discussing studies that need to be taught and researched.
Throughout her whole article she is illustrating the social issues that
are happening in our world now and how diversity should be talked about
and taught more in higher education. She thinks that this will help us in
numerous ways. Because we are the next generation, if we are taught more
about diversity and what is wrong in the world now with societal problems,
we could take what we learn and be able to take it out with us into the real
world. This goes along with the topic discussed in Williams article, about
education and how students need to be able to think for themselves.
Higher Education is a much talked about subject in our world today.
These articles are a few of many that are discussing what is wrong in Higher
Education. These articles address the problems that we are facing today and
some bring forth ideas needed to change, whereas others bring out the fact
that it is up to us students now to research what is wrong and figure out how
to fix it.

Works Cited
Bonewit, S., Soley, L. Research and the Bottom Line in Todays University Amercican
Academic.
Hanke, B., Hearn, A., (2012) Out of the Ruins, the University to come
Hurtado, S. (2007) Linking Diversity with the Educational and Civic Missions of Higher
Education. Review of Higher Education.
Kezar, A. (2004) Obtaining Integrity? Reviewing and Examining the Charter Between Higher
Education and Society. The Review of Higher Education.
Williams, J. (2012) Deconstructing Academe: The Birth of Critical University Studies. The
Chronicle of Higher Education