Automated Project

2012 January 16

The corporatization of universities, and its effects on staff, faculty and students, is a widespread phenomenon, but how exactly is this playing out at UVic?

The Automated Project aims to bring students, staff and faculty together to take action on undesirable changes to the structure and function of the university that are all-too-rarely discussed.

Projects for this Spring include:

• An educational campaign based on the results of a survey of staff, faculty and students regarding the impacts of corporatization and centralization of authority at UVic
• A public forum on corporatization and centralization at UVic

Interested in getting involved? Contact research(at)vipirg(dot)ca or automateduvic(at)gmail(dot)com

Automated meets the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month, 1:30pm, GSS 112

“The university belongs to us, those who teach, learn, research, council, clean, and create community. Together we can and do make the university work. But today this university is in crisis. The neoliberal restructuring of post-secondary education seeks to further embed market logic and corporate-style management into the academy, killing consultation, autonomy and collective decision-making. The salaries of university presidents and the ranks of administrators swell, but the people the university is supposed to serve — students — are offered assembly-line education as class sizes grow, faculty is over-worked, and teaching positions become increasingly precarious. International students and scholars seeking post-secondary or graduate education are treated as cash cows rather than as people who might contribute to both research and society. Debt-burdened students are seen as captive markets by administrators, while faculty is encouraged to leverage public funds for private research on behalf of corporate sponsors.” (Edu-Factory)