To the Editor,
A video of police pepper-spraying non-violent student protesters at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) has recently gone viral on the internet. The incident occurred in 2011, after which UC Davis reportedly spent $175,000 dollars to have a public relations company suppress the video online in order to protect the image of both the University and Chancellor Linda Katehi. Both the school and Katehi have received their fair share of much deserved criticism.
People have a right to be infuriated about this story but it is worth mentioning that this is simply an all too predictable symptom of the state of higher education today. Our universities have evolved into massive corporations and it is common practice, after all, for corporations to hire expensive PR firms to clean up their messes. There is a lot of money to be made in the business of higher education and the University of Denver is no exception.
Last week the Clarion ran an opinion piece in response to Chancellor Chopp and her administration’s decision to raise tuition prices at DU. The piece, quite unfortunately, sounded more like something one would expect from a state run radio than a student run paper. The logic was more or less that if Chopp says that the increase is necessary then it must be, therefore we should just accept it. This seems to me to be the height of naivety. This criticism may seem unfair; after all, as an opinion piece it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Clarion and this individual is, of course, entitled to his own opinions. However, if you publish those opinions you are also opening yourself up to criticism.
We should instead acknowledge a basic fact: Chancellor Chopp does not care about you, me, or the environment (sorry Divest DU). Again, this may seem unfair. I’ve never personally met Chopp after all and she may very well be a kind and compassionate person. In fact, I like to imagine that she probably is, and as an individual she may care about all of those things. However, in her role as chancellor she does not. Why? Because she was not hired to care about those things. She was hired to run a business, and this business has the same bottom line as any other business.
We should not over moralize this issue. Chopp is, after all, just doing her job. If she didn’t do her job the school would find someone else who would. At the same time, we should also not simply give her a pass. It is precisely because Chopp’s job is to make a profit off of our educations that we should resist her attempts to do so whenever possible. It is naïve to assume that Chopp and the other top administrators will prioritize what is best for students which is why we should speak out against them and hold them accountable – no one else will do it for us.
Ryne Beddard
Graduate Student, 2017
Religious Studies MA
