Voices Breaking Through the Barriers: How Academic Capitalism Presents Itself in Research Universities

• In Event: Accepting Responsibility for Unearthing Emerging and Persistent Organizational Realities

Abstract

This study recognized patterns of academic capitalism present at the University of California by analyzing video documentation of town hall meetings held at five of the ten campus locations. Town hall meetings were part of a historic search for a system-wide president in which the public was granted the opportunity to comment on the qualities they hoped to see in the next person appointed. In the documentation of these events, students, staff, faculty, and community members’ testimonies expressed concerns that affected their experiences at their campuses. This paper identifies traits associated with neoliberalism and academic capitalism and calls for universities to engage in similar open-forum events to give a platform to the voices that are traditionally silenced in shared governance.

Author

• Valeria G. Dominguez, University of California - Riverside