'Wannabe U' author discusses 'businesslike' schools

Sociology professor Gaye Tuchman gave a lecture, "How American Universities are Changing," Wednesday afternoon at Homer Babbidge Library, kicking-off "Research Highlights at Noon," a library-sponsored series.

Tuchman spoke to an audience of about 50, mostly faculty members.

In October, Tuchman published her book "Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University."

The publisher, The University of Chicago Press, describes the book on its Web site, saying "Like the best campus novelists, Tuchman entertains with her acidly witty observations of backstage power dynamics and faculty politics, but ultimately 'Wannabe U' is a hard-hitting account of how higher education's misguided pursuit of success fails us all."

Her book and lecture discusses the idea that higher education facilities are becoming more businesslike.

"I don't think this is an exposé," Tuchman said as she began her lecture. "It could also be called 'dechurching universities,'" she said, referring to how most early European universities were originally started by churches.

"I'm not speaking about 'a' university, at all," said Tuchman, explaining how she received e-mails from all around the country agreeing that the phenomena she described in "Wannabe U" applies to their universities.

Tuchman cited business methods, including efficiency, economy and effectiveness as reasons for the "managerialism" of American higher education facilities.

"One byproduct of this is that new managers undercut academic faculty," said Tuchman.

Tuchman discussed the expansion of the academic labor force. She said, "Graduate students do an extraordinary amount of teaching."

"Up to 70 percent of instructors may be graduate students and adjuncts," said Tuchman, noting that if individual sections of classes are not included in the count, the percentage is much lower.

Quoting Stanley Aronowitz's 1998 book "The Last Good Job in America," Tuchman said, "The full professor, like the spotted owl, is becoming an endangered species."

"Certainly at most universities to conserve money, we are not hiring full professors, we are hiring associate professors," said Tuchman.

As for the most important part of Tuchman's message for students, she said they should know that they're "the product."

Tuchman compared students to "hot dogs" that the university is producing. "We're treating you like objects," she said, and "There's no reason for you to take it."

Students need to "decide what really matters," Tuchman said, referring to how money is spent at UConn. "I don't like the fact that a class that had 85 kids in 1991 now has 320."

"Universities need students," Tuchman said. They're the "one thing a university needs to stay in business."

"The kind of students we see on this campus are atypical," said Tuchman, stating that most college students live at home, have jobs and put themselves through school.

"Students we see here are a reminder of the past," she said.

Due to globalization, Tuchman said "Our country has been switching from mass higher education … to an attempt at universal higher education."

Countries including China and India, Tuchman explained, are putting as much money as possible into higher education in hopes that it will help their economies. State funding for higher education in the U.S., however, has decreased from as little as 10 percent to as much as 50 percent.

As far as the ranking of U.S. higher education facilities, Tuchman pointed out that on the ranking produced by the U.S. News and World Report, public schools don't make the list until No. 21, University of California, Berkley. The top 20 spots are typically occupied by the "once extraordinarily wealthy private universities," Tuchman said.

One factor involved in creating this ranking is class size. Keeping class sizes under 20 is now important to universities.

"If [a class] goes up to 20 [students], the class cannot be included in that percentage," said Tuchman.

When students ask to be over-enrolled into classes and are denied, Tuchman said, "It's not about the teaching."

As far as class size is concerned for the rankings, "It's silly because one-credit classes count as three-credit classes," Tuchman said, explaining why all Freshmen and Senior Year Experience classes at UConn are 19 students and under.

Tuchman also discussed issues including the auditing of faculty members, an increase in assembly-line education and centralization at the managerial level.

Tuchman shared a quote she recently overheard with the attentive, interactive audience, saying, "I don't want to give an opinion because I don't know what other people think."

The audience laughed, and Tuchman said that it reminded her of the conformity of the '50s and '60s.

"Universities are supposed to be about asking questions - even silly questions. Even a silly question can turn out to have really interesting ramifications," she said.