We had a thought-provoking panel discussion concerning the power plays going on in Florida higher education. Following a reading of the play, "The XXX-Rated Genius: Corporatization of American Higher Education", the audience was treated to a lively Q&A session.Jeff Grieneisen and Courtney Ruffner teach locally at the State College of Florida (SCF). In January, the State College of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted to eliminate multi-year contracts at SCF. Grieneisen and Ruffner filled the audience in on the status of forming a union to give SCF faculty a voice in the decision making process and why these contracts are so important. They also spoke about the make-up of the Board of Trustees and their almost complete lack of background in higher education.
Rhana Bazzini provided an historical perspective. When she was college-age in New York City, her peers were attending the City College of New York for free. That kind of governmental investment in education has been redirected, and now students are graduating with unprecedented debt.
Ralph Wilson, a co-founder of FSU’s chapter of UnKoch My Campus, explained how the Charles Koch Foundation uses their funding to require and monitor ideological compliance on campus. According to UnKoch My Campus, the Koch brothers and their network of front groups work to undermine environmental protection, worker’s rights, health care expansion, and quality public education, to name just a few. They have donated to hundreds of colleges and universities in the name of philanthropy. But these donations are given with strings attached. Their donations influence college research, the professors hired, and the coursework being taught, in order to advance their ideologies and corporate profits. In this short, camera-phone video, Ralph explains how they play both sides of the tenure issue to their advantage.
