Speaking
Out
A
Comment on the Fish
The
University and the pro-union graduate
students differ on various matters,
but there is one fundamental disagreement.
This becomes clear in a recent flyer
posted by GET-UP, in which a big fish
with an open mouth initially chases
scattered little fish, but then gets
pursued by an organized school of
open-mouthed little fish. If they
remain divided, the flyer shows us,
graduate students eligible for the
union will be eaten by the big fish
of a university. Unionized, however,
that subset of graduate students will
turn the tables on the big fish and
threaten to eat it instead.
What
is a big fish? And is the University
one?
The
University is clearly big in various
ways. But the big fish in the GET-UP
flyer is more than just big. It is
also trying to eat the little fish.
This signifies not only size and power,
but also hunger and a willingness
to use others to satisfy itself. If
this characterization does in fact
apply to the University, then graduate
students eligible for the union face
a powerful, hungry institution and
they might be justified in defending
themselves.
The
University presents an alternative
view of its nature, as a nonprofit
organization devoted to research,
mentoring and teaching. The University
must generate and spend revenue for
this research, mentoring and teaching,
but money is simply a means to a non-financial
end. The big fish eats (a strictly
vegetarian diet, I'm sure), but only
so that it can take little fish under
its fins and help them become the
next generation of researchers and
educators.
I,
for one, agree with the University's
claim. My faculty and administrative
colleagues could be earning more money
in a profession concerned with profit,
but (whatever other neuroses we admittedly
have) we choose to devote ourselves
to research, mentoring and teaching.
Furthermore, graduate students themselves,
whatever they feel about the union,
have also chosen this career path
because of a commitment to something
other than money.
That
said, the pro-union graduate students
are not completely mistaken in seeing
the University as a big fish. The
University struggles with tensions
between the discourses and practices
of financial gain and those of scholarly
inquiry. Scholarly institutions have
always been hybrid, in that they have
always had to garner resources sufficient
to support their scholarship. But
over the last century discourses and
practices of financial gain have increasingly
penetrated areas of the University
that used to be merely scholarly.
Ironically,
the unionization drive may push the
University away from being the sort
of institution they want and toward
the sort of institution the pro-union
students fear. If a subset of graduate
students does unionize, the University
will be forced to adopt an adversarial,
employer-employee relationship toward
them. And thus the discourses and
practices of financial gain will penetrate
even further into our scholarly lives.
I
would ask concerned graduate students
to join in discussions and actions
aimed at protecting the scholarly
core of the University, instead of
pushing us further toward profit-centered
thought and action. A more collaborative
discussion of graduate students' legitimate
concerns would be the preferable alternative.
Let's
all stop eating fish and find another
metaphor.
--Stanton
Wortham, associate professor, Chair,
Educational Leadership Division,
Graduate School of Education
|
Speaking
Out welcomes reader
contributions. Short,
timely letters on University
issues will be accepted
by Thursday at noon
for the following Tuesday's
issue, subject to right-of-reply guidelines.
Advance notice of intention
to submit is appreciated.
--Eds |
Almanac, Vol. 49, No. 21, February 11, 2003
|