Why We Should Fear University Summary

In the article “Why We Should Fear University, Inc. Against the corporate taming of the American college.” Fredrik deBOER addresses that corporatism has infected the soul of the American universities. deBOER begins the article by stating that the university he attended to get his Ph D. in, Purdue University, needs more garden space because it is the last wild place left in the campus. He uses the example that reads “Universities operate, every day, more and more like corporations” (par 4) to suggest that you need to have more people teaching and less people working on controlling the campus. deBOER references that even the nice polished buildings represent how it’s been groomed, how it’s not as cultured as it used to be.

Critics didn’t want
the students to watch American sniper because they are being oversensitive and deBOER agrees by saying “Today’s undergraduates are oversensitive and incurious” (par 7). However, others saw that students actually speak up because they are paying the cost of college tuition, so they want it to be something they agree with. The discussions in universities are now about the political debates and it has little to offer to somebody who isn’t part of a party. According to deBOER, we are paying attention to stuff that is potentially unpopular or stuff that is more up and coming rather than the stuff that is already going on and have to worry about like the racism or sexism that is already on campus. He uses an example that talks about Laura Kipnis arguing that there is really nothing wrong with student-faculty relationships. Many students filed against her because they were feeling abused or didn’t agree with what she was saying, the protesters didn’t want to fire Professor Kipnis, they just wanted to feel safe again.

DeBOER mentions “Rather than painting student activists as censors we should instead see that as trapped in a corporate architecture of managing offense” (par 11) they are stuck in the way the system is, they’re trying to do their best to work around the system unfortunately it isn’t the best. He notes “so these efforts are often designed to spare the institutions from legal liability rather than protect the individuals who would be harmed by sexual harassment” (par 11) Universities are unaffiliated about preventing sexual harassment from happening, they care more about protecting their image. deBOER follows up by stating that we shouldn’t say the students are a threatened since tellectual freedom on campus, it’s the college system that was worked wrong. If you want to make a difference you have to really work hard, you can’t appeal to them. He suggests not to be so naive to doubt that universities actually like the party reputation, they appreciate the party culture because it gets people to go to that campus. deBOER fears that other places are going to become too clean while other places just stay the same. Maybe there's hope “If so, students will have to be the ones who lead the way” (par 17)