***** Academic Capitalism in a Public Ivy by Cynthia Young
...What, I wondered, was the relationship between SUNY Binghamton's newly won status as an efficiency expert and its current drive to court and win federal and private research dollars? One answer, I soon found out, lies in the current restructuring of the funding and allocation of resources within New York's state university system. The much reviled RAM (Resource Allocation Methodology), under the new moniker BAP (Budget Allocation Process) has been implemented. Establishing enrollment quotas and emphasizing "research, public service" and "performance," BAP represents one critical stage in the further privatization of SUNY. 2 In this schema, tuition dollars remain on each campus and are redistributed to schools and departments at the discretion of each university's administrators. For Binghamton, this has meant a 3% increase in operating funds this year, but other SUNY branches such as Oswego, Buffalo, and HSC Brooklyn have taken a significant financial hit. 3 As this funding schema takes hold, Binghamton will begin to attract disgruntled students adversely affected by other SUNY campus' losses in classes, programs, and staff. Not only are SUNY campuses pitted against one another, but students are reduced to variables in a financial equation, nothing more and nothing less....
Another significant part of the BAP plan encourages faculty to seek outside grants by introducing a formula whereby individual campuses will receive a 20% match for total direct and indirect costs averaged over three years for research activity. 6 This juicy carrot is combined with a blunt stick. In an as yet unarticulated new set of "performance indicators," faculty will be judged by their scholarly productivity, measured in part, no doubt, by the number and size of fellowships and grants they obtain....
<http://www.workplace-gsc.com/workplace2-1/young.html> *****
***** ACADEMIC CAPITALISM Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie
A look at the current state of academic careers and institutions, with a particular focus on public research universities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
$19.95 | paperback | 0-8018-6258-2 1999 paperback, 296 pp.
"A convincing analysis of the transition of the academy from its own protected form of feudalism to a predatory capitalism."--Michael Ryan, College & Research Libraries
<http://www.press.jhu.edu/press/books/titles/f99/f99slac.htm> ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>