![9 Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
This is the current vision of UMTC: a ten year plan for ‘excellence’
through strategic positioning.
“Strategic positioning is essentially a public relations campaign. It corrupts the ambitious
goal of truly becoming one of the top three research universities with cynical tricks so that
the University merely appears like it is in the top three. The vapidly titled report, “Achieving
Excellence,” is littered with examples.
In that report, the University touts figures that show total financial aid to undergraduates
has increased by 50 percent since 2005. Nowhere does it mention that tuition went up by
almost exactly that amount in the same period of time. Loans are included in the financial
aid numbers, so while the University claims that it is giving students a better deal, cost of
attendance and student debt loads are actually rising significantly.
The report pulls the same trick when it brags that research expenditures have risen by
$192 million over four years. Spending more does not necessarily mean higher quality, it
means just spending more.
It is painfully obvious that the strategic positioning agenda is obsessed with rankings.
Much money and energy has gone into raising the University’s retention and graduation
rates since the start of strategic positioning, and it’s easy to see why. Graduation and reten-
tion rates count for 20 percent of the formula U.S. News and World Report uses to create its
rankings. The standardized test scores, class rank and acceptance rate of the incoming fresh-
man class counts for another 15 percent, and sure enough, the University is trying to drive
up those numbers as well. While these statistics can be symptoms of a healthy institution, the
University is trying to boost them in order to help itself in the U.S. News and World Report
rankings, which do not provide a true picture of university quality.....”
[excerpt from MN daily article from 3/31/11]
30
Library. Twitter and Facebook are key tools as well as well as creating informal
pamphlets or zines.
In the pages that follow are some resources to use for generating alternative nar-
ratives around the problems/solutions in higher education.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/whoseuniversityzine-190702190033/85/Whose-university-zine-10-320.jpg)
Whose university zine
- 2. Credits Thank you to: Lisa Arrastía, Chaka Mkali, Rose Brewer, Zenzele Isoke, Ryan Mur- phy, Yuichiro Onishi, Jigna Desai, and Sofi Shank for helping me shape the direction of my studies at the university. In addition, thank you to Lisa Sass Zaragoza, Illenin Kondo, Steven Renderos, Jake Virden, Vanessa Abanu, Charlene Bogonko, Brianna Wilson, students from the social justice minor, and the Office for Equity and Diver- sity for feedback that has led me to develop the framework and content of this text as it appears today. Thank you to my family, the Individualized Degree Program, Bryan Kuzel from Global Studies, Tom Fitzgerald from the Honors department, as well as the entire full time and student staff of the Community Service Learning Center for helping advise and council me through several years at UMTC. Thank you to all representatives and supporters of the Whose University? Campaign and Sustainable Progress for Engaging Active Citizens (SPEAC) for inspiring me to take on this project. Finally, I am greatly indebted to Bailey Sears for her incredible dedicated work to help me design this zine as an electronic document so that you can now read it. 38 About the WhoseU Campaign In fall 2010, the Whose University? Film Project formed as an autonomous organization concerned with the lack of support for underrepresented groups -including students of color and low income students- at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. We also started the project to generate critical public conversation around the strate- gic repositioning of UMTC as a elite research institution. We wanted to hear new stories about ‘whose’ interests and ‘whose’ communities should be prioritized at UMTC--- and ‘whose’ needs and ‘whose’ voices were currently reflected in University policy-making. In the process, we saw that whether in the struggle for space/resources for student cultural centers, attempts to challenge university admissions policy, or pushback against proposals to defund ethnic studies - the effects go beyond indi- viduals to entire communities. Yet, as the project continued to grow we saw that what was needed was more than questions, more than stories, more than voices. We needed to organize- to build power to confront systematic racial and economic exclusions at UMTC from the bottom-up. We needed to show that students have the tools and the networks that are needed to start change. We needed to grow relationships and literacy that could connect work at UMTC to broader movements for education justice. This is why we used our April 20th ‘Day of Education’ event to call upon the state of Minnesota to be attentive to the struggles around access for underrepresented groups at UMTC. We made purposeful linkages between communities, conditions and conversations - from the Dream Act to the school to prison pipeline- and brought the pieces together through our programming. The ‘Day of Education’ was a suc- cess not only because it brought in over 600 attendees, including 300 high school students, but because it showed that what happens at the University is not isolated from what happens in broader society. While institutions like UMTC may operate as if there is a sharp divide be- tween ‘the university’ and ‘the community’ -between ‘the academy and ‘the real world’- we explored the overlap.
- 3. Preface: Whose University? Contradictions at UMTC....................................................................................page 4 Timeline: Alternative Histories Four moments of crisis and change at UMTC............................................................page 5 Chapter 1: Whose Excellence? Contesting the vision of the elite, research institution ..................................................page 7 Chapter 2: Whose Opportunity? Racial/economic exclusions in higher education.......................................................page 15 Chapter 3: Whose Education? Movement Strategy ............................................................................................page 20 talk about the classroom, page 21 deconstruct neoliberalism, page 22 organize people, resources, and ideas, page 23 think through your demands, page 25 don’t depend on bureaucracy, page 26 organize in multiple sites and watch out for divide and conquer, page 27 question the metrics, page 28 pose for your own camera and broadcast your own messages, page 30 Resources: Text & Ideas ....................................................................page 32 References: Appendix & Citations...............................................page 35 About this Zine........................................................................................page 39 About the WhoseU Campaign........................................................page 40 * The star means there is more graphics, citations, and discussion about this topic. See appendix. Table of Contents 37 THIS ZINE grows out of the work of the Whose University? Campaign from spring- summer 2011. My involvement and the amazing leaders I met during this time has profoundly impacted my life. I make this document as a way to document conversations and ‘lessons learned’ as well as to offer my own insights for future leaders, activists, and student organizers-- particularly undergraduate students. THIS ZINE explores several contradictions surrounding the placement of students of color and low income students at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. Specifically, I critique the current vision of “excellence” at UMTC as an elite, top three, research institution. I show the ways that this vision informs institutional priorities and practices embedded in racial/economic exclusions. This includes who is admitted, what kinds of “discovery” are celebrated, what notions of “opportunity” are supported, and how the commitment “diversity” is expressed . THIS ZINE shows that how we learn, teach, and work in the education system is key in shaping which problems are deemed worth solving and whose perspectives are valued and consulted in the process. Our educations are integrally connected to what is happening in the world around us.... and our response is part of framing what we envision for the future. ABOUT THIS ZINE
- 4. 36
- 5. Preface: Whose University?Contradictions at UMTC Preface: Whose University? 4 At University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, as within our public education system as a whole, it is only in moments of larger ‘crisis’ and ‘contradiction’ that pub- lic needs and public voices have taken over the institution. Moments of crisis magnify the pressure of community demands. In 2011, we saw the WhoseU campaign begin to take up space at UMTC to confront the tensions around ra- cial and economic exclusions in higher education. This kind of occupation, whether acknowledged and seen or not, is the basis of continued movement. However, the question ‘whose university is it?” extends beyond any individual organization or group. Rather, it is the question we should ask eachother -as well as to incoming President Kaler- throughout next five years of “transformation” under strategic positioning. Necessarily, this question reveals several contradic- tions between the official rhetoric around diversity and the reality of racial and economic exclusions at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. I list some three points here as a beginning, a preface to discussions that follow. -public celebration of increasing ACT/SAT scores as well as class rank of incom- ing students every year ...paired with a lack of critical discussion regarding an admissions process that increasing prioritizes measures and metrics that reflect disparities from the K-12 level. -messaging to the state legislature and the media centered around the paramount importance of UMTC to the future of the state ...paired with a failure to priori- tize funding and resources on campus in any way proportionate to severity of racial and economic inequities in Minnesota. -the marketing of students of color in official advertising and the emphasis on touring the second floor with outside visitors …paired with a failure to take lead- ership in affirming the essential value of space for student cultural centers in the central student union building. 35
- 6. National Context: American Civil War. In the convergence of war, race and class tensions, westward expansion, as well as the rising importance of both agricultural production and industrialization, Congress passes the Morrill Land Grant Act in 1962. This is the first instance of federal aid to higher education.* University of Minnesota: Expansion of admissions. The University was shut down during the Civil War and reopened in the late 1880s as a land-grant college under the Morrill Act. This act sets forward the ideal of higher education for a broad layer of society (the “masses”). In practice, the vision is extremely limited. It will take social movement and organizing to truly begin to open UMTC beyond the most privileged stratum of (white, male, upper class) society. National Context: The Great Depression. Mass unemployment and a growing movement of low income people leads to the expansion of the public services, especially under FDR’s New Deal. This is the idea of the social ‘safety net’ - a basic level of support for working class families.* University of Minnesota: The General College opens. As an access point for low income students, especially the white working class that had in reality been excluded from the land-grant ideal, the General College provides developmental education to support first- generation college students. The college does not grant degrees, but offers initial coursework that students can then transfer to other colleges in the Minnesota system. GC also uses a holistic admissions process. 5 1862 1932 FOUR MOMENTS OF Crisis&ChangE Timeline: Alternative Histories 34
- 7. University of Minnesota: Morrill Hall Takeover. In January 1969, seven black students from the Afro-American Action Com- mittee -along with some supporters- occupy Morrill Hall after over a year of organizing. Within the next months, a Black studies program is approved by the Board of Regents and the same year an American Indian studies pro- gram is established. Two years later, twenty Chicano students occupy Mor- rill Hall, making demands that lead to the Chicano Studies. These examples demonstrate the level of confrontation and pushback that has been needed to truly open the university to ‘the public.’ National Context: Economic Recession Unemployment, underemployment, and high levels of private and public debt are everyday concerns. The public education system is in ‘crisis’ as well -according to some estimates, schools are more segregated and stratified today than in the 1960s. What’s more, with the steady withdrawal of government funding for public institutions and social services in the last three decades, there are minimal supports. Racial and economic inequities have increased, with low income communities of color, in particular, suffering from the effects .* University of Minnesota: Ongoing pushback against the exclusive vision of UMTC as a Top Three research institution. 1969 2000 6 at UMTC National Context: The Civil Rights Movement. National unrest and broad-based community mobilizations associated with the Civil Rights movements end de jeure racial segregation. Laws are passed ending discrimination in regards to race and other factors across the public sector. The education system is slowly integrated as affirmative action pro- grams become standard.* Timeline: Alternative Histories33 appendix
- 8. 32 Chapter One: Whose Excellence? 7 chapter One Whose Excellence? Contesting the elite research institution In recent years, the advertising campaigns of the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities increasingly orient the school as a flagship institution for research and excellence globally. We are used to seeing the tagline -’Driven to Discover’- on all official university communications, as well as on floor decals, billboards, television ads, and glossy magazine inserts around the state. However, fewer students know that the entire University of Minnesota system, has undergone a comprehensive strategic positioning “transformation” since the early 2000s that set forward this vision for the university. Specifically, the goal of achieving status as a TOP THREE research institution in the world was officially established in March 2005, with the Board of Regent’s unanimous endorsement of the University’s Strategic Positioning report. “ To become one of the three best public research universities in the world requires institutional focus and a fundamental transformation of both administrative operations and cultural expectations across all University campuses. ” (2006 Administrative Service and Productivity Task Forces & Steering Committee final report, page 12) “More than ever, we must look beyond our past and beyond our borders to thrive in an increasingly competitive and global higher education scene.” (2005 Academic Taskforce final report, page 6) “Consistent with the University’s mission and values, the University is committed to achieving excellence through a diverse student body.” 2010 Accountable to U Report “I want to assure you that the leadership of this great University is fully committed to achieving excellence in every aspect of our mission, in fulfilling the promises we have to the University community and to the state of Minnesota.” (President Bruininks Inaugural Address, February 28th, 2003).
- 9. • The vision of the University of Minnesota is to improve the human condition through the advancement of knowledge. • We will transform the University by improving the education of our students and our commitment and people around the world. • This focus sets us on the path to become one of the top three public research universities in the world. • We will accomplish our goals by cultivating outstanding students, exceptional , dedication to innovation. • Thirty-four task forces have submitted recom- mendations on a wide range of University objectives. • University leaders have begun implementing recommendations and will continue to evaluate them as they are submitted to identify key transformational initiatives that will propel the University toward its goal. - tives will be announced in early fall to the Board of Regents and the University community. Key Messages • The vision of the University of Minnesota is to improve the human condition through the advancement of knowledge. • We will transform the University by improving th education of our students and our commitmen and people around the world. • This focus sets us on the path to become one o the top three public research universities in the wo • We will accomplish our goals by cultivating outstanding students, exceptional dedication to innovation. • Thirty-four task forces have submitted recom- mendations on a wide range of University objectives. • University leaders have begun implementing recommendations and will continue to evaluat them as they are submitted to identify key transformational initiatives that will propel th University toward its goal. - tives will be announced in early fall to the Boa of Regents and the University community. Key Messages Chapter One: Whose Excellence? 831 resources
- 10. 9 Chapter One: Whose Excellence? This is the current vision of UMTC: a ten year plan for ‘excellence’ through strategic positioning. “Strategic positioning is essentially a public relations campaign. It corrupts the ambitious goal of truly becoming one of the top three research universities with cynical tricks so that the University merely appears like it is in the top three. The vapidly titled report, “Achieving Excellence,” is littered with examples. In that report, the University touts figures that show total financial aid to undergraduates has increased by 50 percent since 2005. Nowhere does it mention that tuition went up by almost exactly that amount in the same period of time. Loans are included in the financial aid numbers, so while the University claims that it is giving students a better deal, cost of attendance and student debt loads are actually rising significantly. The report pulls the same trick when it brags that research expenditures have risen by $192 million over four years. Spending more does not necessarily mean higher quality, it means just spending more. It is painfully obvious that the strategic positioning agenda is obsessed with rankings. Much money and energy has gone into raising the University’s retention and graduation rates since the start of strategic positioning, and it’s easy to see why. Graduation and reten- tion rates count for 20 percent of the formula U.S. News and World Report uses to create its rankings. The standardized test scores, class rank and acceptance rate of the incoming fresh- man class counts for another 15 percent, and sure enough, the University is trying to drive up those numbers as well. While these statistics can be symptoms of a healthy institution, the University is trying to boost them in order to help itself in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, which do not provide a true picture of university quality.....” [excerpt from MN daily article from 3/31/11] 30 Library. Twitter and Facebook are key tools as well as well as creating informal pamphlets or zines. In the pages that follow are some resources to use for generating alternative nar- ratives around the problems/solutions in higher education.
- 11. 29 movementstrategy Develop a precise, shared, and well-circulated counternarrative. The University of Minnesota spent over $1 million dollars this year on advertising for the Driven to Discover campaign. A few years ago, it was double this amount. The images and soundbites produced by this campaign – of students cleaning test tubes and building robots- tell a story about UMTC that is detached and decontextualized from the communities surrounding it. Through the repetition of the same imagery and narratives the goal of a ‘top three research institution’ comes to seem more feasible and more logical. The fact that the billboards, television ads, and floor decals are everywhere only works to further flood our minds and lives with messag- ing that affirms the exclusive values of strategic positioning in the first place. On-the-ground organizing at UMTC must confront and reframe the domi- nant narratives around the purpose and goals of higher education. We need to tell own stories about “what’s going on” and “who is affected.” After all, we know what policy ideals look like on the ground. The recent ‘Because’ campaign asks the question ‘why are we driven to discover?’ Some examples of taglines: “because the unsolvable was invi- tation enough”- “because we can change the course of history”- “because tomorrow’s visionaries need focus today” and “because creativity fuels the new economy”. At WhoseU, when we solicited our own ‘because’ state- ments, we talked about textbook prices, about belonging and community on campus, about concerns regarding the content of curriculum, and about forgotten histories and events at the university,. We also used the equipment available to broadcast on our own net- works. Currently, we have been focused on retelling the story of WhoseU and the organizing of the ‘Day of Education.’ Our film will use individual interviews and strategic footage from the event to help tell a story about underrepresented students organizing at UMTC. Many students have ac- cess to cameras and video equipment at Rarig Theater as well as at Walter 10Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
- 12. 11 Chapter One: Whose Excellence? Elite ‘talent’ Admissions practices at UMTC have shifted dramatically in the last decade to favor competitive and high-stake test scores as well as students who graduate at the top 10% of their class. Specifically, since 2004 the average ACT score has gone up to 27.2 points, the number of National Merit Scholars has doubled, and close to nine out of every twenty incom- ing freshmen are in the top 10% of their high school class. These kinds of numbers are extremely important for the college ranking process. Of course, one should also note that these same numbers tell us little about the university’s value or the quality of learning in the classroom. Test scores have also been shown to be inadequate as the primary measures for assessing future aptitude or potential within students.* Yet, the admis- sions figures for incoming students continue to fulfill a key function: they feed narratives and practices of elitism at UMTC. They actively exclude students have more complex placement in relation to high school achieve- ment and help to groom a student body that willingly accepts notions of excellence at UMTC regardless of actual classroom content or support. Uneven investments in ‘discovery’ The goal of becoming a research one university inevitably celebrates and rewards certain kinds of ‘discovery’ and not others. Specifically, un- even investment limits the scholarly research agenda as well as devaluing the work of educators with their students. The CLA 2015 report describes the way that the College of Liberal Arts, the largest college on campus, was the only unit to lose revenue since 2008. This will force several CLA programs/departments to downsize or merge in the next years. Those with smaller class sizes and enrollment (as well as less income from re- search grants) are particularly threatened -including ethnic studies depart- ments. The survival and autonomy of these units is tenuous, regardless of the ways that they serve individual students, the mission of the university, the pursuit of knowledge within the academy, as well as the surrounding community. In general, professors and departmental units at UMTC are 28 movementstrategy ...questionthe METRICS Demography: noun, the study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human population. Demographics assist in regulation of a population -charting who people are, where people live, and what they do. This process is supposed to ensure that the needs of a population are met and resources are distributed.* The development of demography in the United States is embedded within the university as a site and subject of analysis. As a starting place, the university is crucially linked to the conceptual grounding and technical innovation of the national census- the largest demography project in the country. The first official census in the United States emerges in 1790. The politics of these ‘numbers’ are clearly wrapped up within issues of racialized labor and citizenship as well as the economics of industrial production. At the time, African Americans are ‘counted’ as 3/5th a person while most American Indians are not ‘counted’ at all. 1960s and 1970s social movements brings a different meaning to the census project both in higher education and elsewhere. Comparison of ‘the numbers’ becomes a key tool for assessing the progress of civil rights and antidiscrimination policy; accordingly, the politics of collecting racial/ethnic demographics become part of the national debate for the next several decades. Our narratives as subjects who are constantly ‘measured’ within the education system is important. The reality of demographic shift and the news that the United States is close to ‘minority majority’ in the next few decades means that it is a perfect time to develop a more critical approach to use of racial/ethnic demographics. This critical approach quickly reveals all the ways that changing ‘the numbers’ -increasing the faculty of color employed, numbers of students who graduate each year - cannot be the sole focus of our demands. There are so many other factors that are still un- measured- including campus climate for underrepresented groups, support structures for first generation college students, culturally responsive and critical curriculum ma- terials, and the presence of staff and faculty who are accountable to students’ needs and experiences. ‘The numbers’ will always erase, limit, and exclude so we must center voices-- not just percentages and pie charts. Thus, our wording and analysis has to become more nuanced and sophisticated. In WhoseU we made an effort both to point to numbers that yet unaccounted for publicly- admissions from the MPS and SPSS school system for example- while also being attentive to the ways that often stories speak to current conditions more than any number. Demographics are a useful tool but they can also unnecessarily work against the kinds of broad critique we want to develop.
- 13. 27 movementstrategy Divide & Conquer The idea of “divide and conquer” has been a standard practice in Western political strategy going back for over a thousand years. Breaking apart alliances by manipulating self interest (whether through “the carrot” or “the stick) should be understood as an essential tool for empire building. In fact, the “divide and conquer” strategy was explicit in many campaigns in the colonial age, including the take British takeover of India, the German rule of Rwanda, and Spanish rules in the Americas. It can be seen through the tactics of purposefully spreading uneven resources, creating new social categories to enforce hierarchy, using language as a tool for isolation, and exploiting cultural differences. The university is a workplace and a life chance-- this means that the stakes are high when the context of organizing on campus may threaten salaries, class credits, scholarships, coursework, and key relationships. Organizing work will always have consequences for individuals and units who are committed to building larger movements and critique. However, the precarious placement of individuals in relation to their jobs, their research, and their coursework can also be targeted and exploited, particularly in context of fears over the current economic recession. At UMTC, we see the ways that the interests of undergraduate, graduate student, faculty, and other staff are often divided against eachother. We see how struggles over college access through admissions become separated from the fights on campus to ensure social support for the student population already admitted as well as organizing to ensure adequate wages and feasible schedules for the people who would ideally work with these students. From the beginning, WhoseU organized across sites to connect high school students, educators, workers, and community members. We purposefully built up understanding and capacity around several issues -admissions, cultural centers, ethnic studies- that connected to different core constituencies. We saw that these linkages between sites are incredibly necessary, particularly when the divide and conquer tactics often prove so useful in the university. Specifically, the more than our struggles as individuals and communities are embedded within eachother the more difficult it is to drive a wedge between them. An essential move in this process is to take speak to the larger communities off campus in the way we frame the issues at any given institution. As pressure builds to silence individuals who are inside the institution, community memory and community leaders can help preserve the message and the demands. This is why speaking to the broader city, nation, and state is essential for any description of events on campus. 12Chapter One: Whose Excellence? constantly under scrutiny for the kinds of research they take on and how. It is beyond the scope of this text to explore all the connections between broader social/political/economic interests and the research/work we do inside the university. However, at a minimum it is important to note that with the reduction in state funding since the 1980s, budgeting at the university has become overly dependent on generous private/corporate grants for research. Teaching often must take second place in this context, leaving little space to prioritize lasting community engagement work and student-professor relationships. Instead, we see the increased presence of poorly resourced graduate student instructors and P&A instructors. These workers have temporary contracts with the university and few benefits. Thus, the conditions of the workplace are another factor that confines pos- sibilities for ‘discovery’ in the classroom and beyond. Incoherent and unaccountable internationalism Even as the university becomes more unaffordable to local resi- dents each year, including the increasing numbers of students from im- migrant backgrounds in Minnesota, the numbers of international students at UMTC has easily doubled since the early 2000s. At the same time, many course titles and class descriptions have changed to include the word ‘international’ ond ‘globalization.’ The university has expanded its internal student exchange programs alongside options for UMTC students to study abroad. The Institute for Global Studies has grown notably in ad- dition, as well as the Learning Abroad Center, the International Working Group, and the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS). Yet, ‘global’ movement on campus often grates against the particular context of UMTC within urban Twin Cities. Rhetoric around internationalism unwinds when we look at the crumbling of key pipelines for students from the Minneapolis and Saint Paul public school systems as well as tensions around many of the university’s “community-based” extension programs, service initiatives, and research, the rhetoric. Are conditions in Cedar Riverside, Frogtown, Midtown, or North Minneapolis somehow not “glo- balized” enough for attention? When will UMTC prioritize responsible and critical engagement with the global communities in its backyard?
- 14. 26 “Today, the project of transforming the University…. does not rest solely on the shoulders of university administration but increasingly depends upon the active participation of undergradu- ate and graduate students, tenured, non-tenured and adjunct faculty, and staff…Many of us have sat on dead-end university committees, taskforces, and “representative governing bodies” simply to signal to employers and tenure committees that we have participated in the governance of our institution. This bureaucratic laundering of time and labor is not just an innocent waste of time; it helps stabilize the image of the University as a democratic and collectively managed institu- tion.” -from paper by Kamola and Meyeroff, ‘Creating Commons’ page 1, page 21-22 movementstrategy Let’s face it: what matters are the outcomes and effects of a given policy de- cision, regardless of individual intent. These effects are never “neutral” or “un- biased.” All decisions come from somewhere and have certain consequences- they are not flat, random, abstract choices that fall out of the sky. So, constantly negotiating over the details and minutia of bureaucratic process and policies in order to make things more “objective” is not a good use of time. UMTC has enough layers of decision-making to run anyone to burnout. Depending too much on bureaucracy is a sure path to failure. Of course, it is important to understand how the UMTC bureaucracy works. Yet, it is more essential to see that substantial change comes only through organizing and mass movement. As a student, it is especially unlikely that you will have much more than a symbolic “voice” in the process unless you have rela- tionships and connections within the university that allow you to bypass bureau- cratic hurdles. This is why lobbying the MSA, or sitting in other tedious meetings mostly run through popularity contests, was not the main focus of WhoseU. Instead, we built an autonomous student organization connected to an extensive network of community support. Bureaucracy – layers of hierarchical authority that are part of the ‘govern- ing’ structure of liberal institutions– appears to disperse power and decision-mak- ing away from any one centralized decision-maker.* Many people participate in the bureaucratic ‘governing’ of UMTC- a school of some 60,000 students. This includes individuals well beyond what we call ‘the administration.’ Participation could be part of paid full time employment (as staff or faculty of the Univer- sity), a part of involvement in ‘voluntary’ decision-making bodies (committees, working groups, boards, taskforces, advisory councils), or an outgrowth of having to adhere to official codes and policies for conduct (as registered student groups, teams, clubs). Regardless of the form, this participation requires a level of “self- regulation” – that is, we have to police our conduct and politics carefully to work inside bureaucracies. In general, the consequences for failing self-regulation will usually appear to be carried out by peers and colleagues. Just think about tenure review. 13 Chapter One: Whose Excellence? Disinvestment in key support structures for students of color and low income students According to many students, faculty, staff, as well as college guidance counselors, and high school applicants, and parents that met with WhoseU in 2010-2011, the lack of an accountable and comprehensive support structure for students of color, low income students, and first generation students is hav- ing extreme effects at UMTC. This crisis around college access begins but also extends beyond admissions. It is seen in the current struggle over the second floor of Coffman Memorial Union where is clearly impossible to limit discussion to the procedures of space allocation when the stakes are so high for the communities represented. It is also seen in the ongoing debates over suggestions to downsize the ethnic studies departments. A good place to begin understanding the current moment is with the clo- sure of General College. GC closed in 2005, amidst mass protests and communi- ty push-back. The proposal was a key element of the initial strategic positioning plan even though today many new students don’t realize that GC even existed. GC used a holistic admissions process to admit student who may not have ben- efited from AP, IB, and Honors in high school but still had promise and potential and promise as university students. As such, the college was key pipeline for stu- dents color and low income students from Minnesota. It was also nationally rec- ognized as a site for developmental education- supporting and retaining students who otherwise would not be able to access the resources of the university. Since 2005, many key components of GC have re-purposed and quickly forgotten. Initially, a ‘general studies’ program was integrated into the College of Education and Human Development, a school which now definitely does not reflect the racial diversity or the mission of the original GC. Other measures were also put in place, most notably the Access to Success (ATS) program and the Summer Bridge Program. Resources for these programs were substantial for the first couple years even though the scope of ATS was much smaller. However, ATS has been weakened through defunding and a lack of administrative support and commitment. Scholarships from the Multicultural Excellence Program and the Founders/UPromise have also been downscaled.
- 15. 25 movementstrategy “We demand....... that the University of Minnesota establish at least 200 full scholar- ships for the graduating class of Black Minnesota high school students. We demand.... full consideration of a proposal to eliminate tuition for underprivileged Black high school students. We demand.... the establishment of guidance counseling and recruitment agencies geared toward the needs of Blacks students. We demand... the establishment of a board to review the policies of the athletic department towards Black athletes. We demand... that the new library on the West Bank be named after Martin Luther King, Jr. We demand... equal representation of Black students on all major university policy determining groups. We demand... educational curriculum at the university to reflect the contributions of Black people to the commonwealth and culture of America.” -list of demands from the 1969 Morrill Hall takeover Think through your demands A demand is a concise and pointed statement of ‘what we want specifi- cally and immediately’ that can help catalyze and focus energy. In context of a movement, well employed demands will allow tangible, concrete ‘wins’ and build political literacy. However, a risk in the process of synthesizing down a demand is that you can easily start generating demands that are addressing the symptoms of the problem rather than the root cause. For example, one has to consider, ‘should our fight be over a 3% raise in the numbers of faculty of color at the institution or is it about redefining tenure or is it about both as well as a racial equity analysis of hiring and faculty placement decisions across the college.’ Find ways to make demands that address the overall priorities and vision of UMTC as well as specific policy and practices. Also, remember that demands alone are not sufficient to organize a group. You can send out an inflammatory email, visit classrooms to say ‘end student debt now’, or take a megaphone out on the mall. In fact, you can make demands all day long. But, most likely you won’t be able to turn out many more people than those already mobilized. It can be hard to break through the layers of apathy, cynicism, and indifference. In a society where we are increasingly encircled within ‘private spaces and private lives,’ demands are most useful when developed collectivity in ways that speak to multiple constituencies and stakeholders. 14Chapter One: Whose Excellence? Five Pillars of Strategic Positioning
- 16. 24Chapter Three: Whose Education? movementstrategy So you have people in the room, what else do you have? An important part of building power is leveraging resources within and outside the group. Often, these resources are simple but es- sential- Who has access to a laptop? What are some skills we can share in the group through a training or a teach-in? Where can we get free printing? Where are the pots of money – grants, in-kind donations, fundraising events- that will help pay for bagels as well as help account for the labor of the group? For WhoseU, access to media equipment and space for an unofficial student group to host meetings was essential. We also had to work hard to figure out how to fund our ‘Day of Education’ event and how to pool resources among student groups that may have never collaborated together before. Do not assume that ‘everyone is on the same page.’ Ever. Just because we may be on similar emotional registers or find ourselves seated together in the room today does not mean that we have already established ‘what’s wrong’ and ‘what to do about it’. Organizing ideas requires a willingness to see that we need to build a shared political literacy to build a shared political move- ment. And this literacy will require not only that we synthesize and analyze information -about the policies, histories, and current conditions at UMTC- but also that we organize messages about the purpose and practices of the University in the first place. 15 Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity? chapter Two Whose Opportunity? Racial/Economic exclusions in higher education “As Minnesota’s only comprehensive research and land-grant university, we have an essential role to play in developing human capital, creating innovation, and sharing knowledge in support of our businesses and industries, our families and communities.” - President Bruinicks, legislative testimony February 22, 2011 Lets make it real simple: Opportunity is... 1. 2. 3. an appropriate or favorable time or occasion a situation or condition that promotes the attainment of a goal. a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success. The University of Minnesota- Twin Cities is a Research 1 university that provides many options and opportunities for students in Minnesota. It is one of the largest universities in the nation and has the capacity to greatly impact broad- er trends and investments within higher education. With 40,000 undergraduates, high school students from across the state come to campus each year in hopes of eventually attending the university. Yet, a local high school student who submits an application to UMTC is really submitting record of their experiences within a racialized and stratified education system. Minnesota specifically has one of the largest K-12 achievement gaps in the nation.* The gap persists even when data is aggregated to account for socio- economic class. A recent report by the Minneapolis Foundation describes the situation, “The state’s population of children of color is growing in both size and diversity. In 1990, children of color represented just 9.2% of the state’s public school students. By 2004, that figure had more than doubled to 19.8%.” Accord- ...Admission to a four year college
- 17. 23 Chapter Three: Whose Education? movementstrategy ORGANIZE The basic goal of community organizing is to build power for people solve problems in their lives based on their own networks, resources, and skills. The smallest unit you can organize is a relationship between two people. Relationships are the glue that holds everything to- gether- your relationships with others and the relationships that are facilitated (or not) within the group become a key factor in the long term sustainability of the work. To be clear: Who is in the room -or not- matters greatly. In WhoseU, we saw that the importance of actively recruiting students who had not been involved in orga- nizing work before but were most directly impacted by the policies under discussion. This was the difference between a campaign that discussed ‘what’s happening to them’ and a campaign that actually built power to confront ‘what’s happening to us’. We also tried to limit participation initially from allies who were more expe- rienced activists but also did not represent our base constituencies (i.e. students of color, low income students, first generation college students). We also asked people to step back who were not actively committed through their actions to allow new leadership and voic- es to come forward. Through this process, we saw over and over again that who is in the room influences the content of conversa- tion (the results, the questions that are asked, the issues that remain, the decisions that are made, the topics that are addressed) as well as the nature of conversation (who speaks and when, how tension or silence is present, who facilitates, who is able to participate). 16 Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity? ing to Minnesota Office of Higher Education projections by 2015, students of color will comprise about 20 percent of Minnesota high school graduates. Yet, African American and Latino students in Minnesota were only 55% and 53% likely to be at “proficiency” level on the 2008 MCA Reading tests in 3rd grade, compared to 86% of white students. By 10th grade they were at 36% and 42% accordingly in comparison to 78 % of white high school students. Clearly, the notion of “equal playing grounds for all students” who apply to UMTC from the local school systems cannot hold up in this context. Rather, unequal opportuni- ties and outcomes that begin in elementary school become impossible to ignore. Yet, the college admissions process perpetuates racial exclusions even beyond what happens on the K-12 level.* In fact, according to National Center for Education Statistics the racial gap in college enrollment nationwide has grown since 1977 even as the racial gap in terms of high school drop outs has lessened. Recent studies also show that elite schools like UMTC are increasingly shutting out low income and students of color.* Thus, the struggle to expand admissions to UMTC is central- not periphery- to any discussion of racial disparities in the Minnesota public education system more broadly. UMTC could expand its notions of merit and evaluate ‘talent’ in ways that truly attend to what is going on in our Minnesota K-12 schools. This would mean prioritizing low-income and students of color from the state who have the potential to graduate from college with support but who may have come out on the wrong side of the achievement gap after high school. However, in the last ten years it seems that just the opposite has occurred- the university has restricted access points, emphasized racist and classist high stakes testing, and openly pro- moted community colleges as the ‘alternative’ for this exact cohort of students. When we talk about admissions to UMTC we are talking about more than individual opportunity- we are talking about opportunity for entire communities and populations.
- 18. 22Chapter Three: Whose Education? “The trouble is, there is a fundamental difference between being a student and be- ing a consumer. Education is not a product but a relationship and a process... and the process by which knowledge transforms the individual. When someone buys a car or a hamburger, he or she is purchasing a pre-packaged, readymade commodity to satisfy a specific need. Education is about creating critical thinkers whose skill is precisely the ability to challenge ideas that are pre-packaged or readymade or designed to satisfy such a need” - malik, kenan. What is education for? goteborgs-posten, 31 december 2010 deconstruct neoliberalism movementstrategy A sustained critique of the neoliberal education system is es- sential for countering notions that education is a private, individual choice rather than a public, common good. Rather than favoring private solutions to public problems, we need to respond the lan- guage of supply/demand and the use of cost/benefit models that continue to justify making public higher education at UMTC less accessible and less accountable to the community. In general, we must contest the logics of neoliberalism - which means confront- ing the assumed rationality of capitalist economics as the primary framework for discussing the practices and priorities of the uni- versity. Students as consumers, retention rates as measures of customer satisfaction, universities as businesses, research as income generated, academic departments as financial units, and a degree as a standardized product... these comparisons are all examples of these logics. As already described, the basic framework of strategic positioning at UMTC, the single enterprise institution, perfectly reflects the neoliberal model as well. 17 Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity? ...and graduation with a degree Graduation from a well-recognized university will influence any individuals’ future economic and social opportunities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only college graduates, compared with various other education levels, have experienced growth in median weekly earnings since 1979. This is the education wage premium- the tangible difference in a paycheck between someone with a college degree and someone without.* Of course, higher education pro- vides access to networks of power far beyond actual employment. The internships at the state legislature through the department of political science, that fraternity alumni event you attended last fall, your experience doing lab research with pub- lished faculty in the field, or the connection you made with a guest speaker at the college job fair last week cannot be underestimated. Even the language and ‘pro- fessional’ manners one has to master to navigate within the university has value. Yet, in April 2011, the Minnesota Daily reported that less than half of all UMTC African American students graduate in six years. Students of color have much lower graduation rates than their white counterparts in general, and gaps between four year graduate rates are only worse. According to the National Cen- ter for Public Policy and Higher Education, Minnesota more generally has one of the largest gaps in the nation between white students and persons of color when it comes to degrees awarded per 100 college students. Perhaps it is not surpris- ing, then, that low graduation rates for students of color at UMTC also align with the racial employment gap in the state. Statistics show the state unemployment rate for African Americans in 2010 was 22.5%, compared to around 8% for their white counterparts. Again, Minnesota is notable nationally for high disparities - which exist for other communities of color as well.* Institutional outcomes at UMTC matter. There is incredible potential for the University to take up leadership in confronting institutional and structural inequities. As a large state school and a four year university, the trends at UMTC are part of shaping opportunities and outcomes for communities in Minnesota at large. Unfortunately, at this point we still see both barriers to access and barriers to success.
- 19. 21 Chapter Three: Whose Education? “The University of Minnesota, founded in the belief that all people are enriched by understanding, is dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth; to the sharing of this knowledge through education for a diverse community; and to the application of this knowledge to benefit the people of the state, the nation, and the world.” - UMTC mission statement When we start with the classroom, we are able to develop the kind of overarching structural critique that is required to understand what’s going on in our education system and what to do about it. For example, we start to see that the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities is more than the campus, the buildings, or the individual students, faculty and staff who come here everyday. It is part of a broader intellectual project- the American academy- that has its own contentious histories and philosophies. This project has for years supported classrooms based on competition, ridicule, exclusion and erasure. Talking about our experiences in the classroom in relation or in contrast to these terms is a good way to begin conversation and start envisioning solutions. For example, our class sizes, the prior- ity placed on teaching/learning, and the other kinds of labor that educators and students have to complete outside of school (in the workplace, at home, in the military, etc) all greatly affect our educa- tion. The existence of accessible equipment, critical and provoca- tive course readings, and varied class offerings impacts how we learn. Also, the broader political climate sets the stage for any response or pushback to alternative pedagogy and curriculum. Finally, the ways voices are valued or not in the classroom ---and students’ feelings of belonging in the classroom---- are especially important to what we learn and how. In WhoseU, we found that one of the easiest ways to start conversations about the exclusive values outlined in previous chapters was through discussing students’ experiences in the class- room. talk about the classroom movementstrategy 18Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity? institutionaloutcomesmatter.
- 20. 19 20 chapter Three Whose Education? Chapter Three: Whose Education? “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”- Paulo Freire Movement Strategy Education can provide tools for articulation, ideas for contemplation, and skills for building new worlds. However, the privileges that place us in- side the ivory tower in the first place often keep us from raising the stake of our demands upon the educations we experience in this space. Therefore, what follows below are some <strategies> for raising our eyes from policy reform or even institutional reform to education justice- a call for educa- tion that is anti-oppressive and forwards students and educators as agents for social change in their communities. Importantly, this text focuses on ‘movement strategy,’ acknowledging any discussion of tactics or specific campaigns should occur in relation to a broader movement to end to social disparities, segregation, unfair workplace conditions, the forced isolation of the classroom from the rest of society, the policing of the bodies, behavior, and knowledge, the insistence on oppressive and competition-based peda- gogy, and other forms of violence within our schools and universities.