Syllabus

Preliminary Syllabus

Part I. Seminar Introduction

January 30: Defining Critical University Studies

What is critical university studies and how did it evolve? How will we integrate various academic disciplines and methodologies in social science and the humanities into our analysis of CUS? How can/should historical thinking inform our work in this interdisciplinary seminar and in analyzing CUS?

Reading (to do before first class)

February 6: The Current State of the Neoliberal Public University

Readings:

  • Newfield, Christopher, The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them, Part I: Introduction, pp. 3-49
  • Fabricant, Michael and Stephen Brier, Austerity Blues: Fighting for the Soul of Public Higher Education, Introduction, Ch. 1, pp. 3-39 & Ch. 4, pp. 91-116.
  • Harney, Stefano and Fred Moten, “The University and the Undercommons,” Social Text, Summer 2004 (scanned copy in the shared Dropbox folder).
  • Srigley, Ron, A. Review of Books, “Whose University Is It Anyway?”, Feb. 22, 2018 https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/whose-university-is-it-anyway#! .
  • Ferguson, Roderick, The Reorder of Things, Introduction & Ch. 1, pp. 1-40.

Recommended reading (if you need to brush up on your understanding of neoliberalism): David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005).

 Part II: How Did We Get Here? The Historical Development and Evolution of Public Higher Education in the United States to World War II

February 13: Traditional Interpretations of the Intellectual and Institutional Origins of Higher Education in the United States

Readings:

  • Laurence Veysey, The Emergence of the American University (1965/1970): Intro.; Chap. 2, “Utility”; Chap. 5, “The Pattern of the New University”; Conclusion.
  • John Thelin, A History of American Higher Education (2004): Intro.; Chap. 3, “Diversity and Adversity”; Chap. 4, “Captains of Industry and Erudition” (scanned copy in “Files” section of the course’s Group site on the Academic Commons).

 Primary Sources:

February 20: The Origins of the Public University: NYC’s Municipal Colleges, and the University of California before World War II

Readings:

  • S. Willis Rudy, The College of the City of New York, 1847-1947 (1949), Chs. 1-5, 7, 10, 13, 17 (scanned copy in “Files” section of the course’s Group site on the Academic Commons).
  • John Aubrey Douglass, The California Idea and American Higher Education: Ch. 1, “Statehood and the Idea of a University,” pp. 1-45 (scanned copy in “Files” section of the course’s Group site on the Academic Commons)
  • Frederick Rudolph, The American College and University: A History (1962), Ch. 13, “The Emerging University,” pp. 264-86; Ch. 17, “Progressivism and the Universities,” pp. 355-72 (scanned copy in “Files” section of the course’s Group site on the Academic Commons).
  • Sherry Gorelick, City College and the Jewish Poor, Chs. 4, Ch. 5, & Ch. 8  (scanned and available on the group site on the Academic Commons).
  • James Traub, City on a Hill: Testing the American Dream at City College (Addison-Wesley, 1994): Ch. 2, pp. 21-42. (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons)
  • Harold Wechsler, The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admissions in America, John Wiley & Sons, 1977, Ch. 8, to p. 194 (scanned and available on the group site on the Academic Commons).

Primary Sources:

Part III: The Evolution of the Public University in the Postwar Era, from World War II through the NYC Fiscal Crisis

February 27: The Evolution of the NYC Municipal College and the University of California Systems and the Emergence of SUNY and CUNY

Readings:

  • Fabricant & Brier, Austerity Blues, Ch. 2, pp. 40-64; Ch. 3, pp. 65-80.
  • Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University (1963 edition), scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons.
  • Sheila Gordon dissertation, Ch. IV, “The Decision for Open Admissions,” pp. 160-200 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons)
  • Tahir Butt, “Free Tuition and Expansion in New York Public Higher Education,” TRAUE, Vol. III http://bit.ly/1AC6Kpw.
  • Harold Wechsler, The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admissions in America, John Wiley & Sons, 1977, Ch. 8, pp. 194-206; Ch. 11, (scanned and available on the group site on the Academic Commons).
  • David Lavin, et. al., Right vs. Privilege: The Open-Admissions Experiment at CUNY (1981), Chs. 1, p. 1-27 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons).

Primary Sources:

March 6: From the Founding of CUNY, to the Creation of SEEK, and the Struggle for Open Admissions

Readings:

  • Sheila Gordon dissertation, Ch. IV, “The Decision for Open Admissions,” pp. 200-247 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons)
  • Danica Savonick dissertation, Intro and Ch. 3 OR Ch. 4 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons)
  • Sean Molloy, dissertation chapters Chs. 1, 3-5 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons)
  • Brier, “Why the History of CUNY Matters: Using the CUNY Digital History Archive to Teach CUNY’s Past,” Radical Teacher 108: 2017. https://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/radicalteacher/article/view/357

Primary Sources:

March 13: From the Struggle for Open Admissions at CUNY to the NYC Fiscal Crisis, 1969 – 1976

Readings:

  • Lavin, al., Right vs. Privilege, Chs. 2 & 10 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons).
  • James Traub, City on a Hill: Testing the American Dream at City College (Addison-Wesley, 1994): Ch. 4, pp. 69-80. (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons)
  • Fabricant & Brier, Austerity Blues, pp. 80-88.
  • Martha Biondi, The Black Revolution on Campus, Ch. 4: “Brooklyn College Belongs to Us”
  • Kim Phillips-Fein, Fear City, Ch. 15 on the struggle to keep Hostos C.C. open (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons).
  • Newt Davidson Collective, Crisis at CUNY, all (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons).
  • Joshua Freeman, Working Class New York, Ch. 15, “The Fiscal Crisis,” pp. 256-287 (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons).

Primary Sources:

  • CUNY, “The Open Admissions Story” (1970) (scanned and available on group site on Academic Commons).
  • “Open Admissions and Remedial Education at CUNY,” Report III of the Mayor’s (Rudolph Giuliani’s) Advisory Task Force on CUNY (1996), pp. 1-32. Available online at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/rwg/cuny/html/admissions.html .
  • CDHA collection, “Save Hostos“

Part IV. The Expansion of the University Curriculum and the Counter Revolution of Neoliberalism and Austerity

March 20: The Transformation of the Curriculum and the Rise of Black Studies Programs

Readings:

  • Martha Biondi, The Black Revolution on Campus, all (except Ch. 4)

Primary Sources:

March 27: The Challenges Facing Minority Studies Programs

Readings:

  • Roderick Ferguson, The Reorder of Things, all.
  • June Jordan, “Black Studies: Bringing Back the Person” (1969).

Week of April 1-5: 2-3 page short description of your research project, including listing of primary and secondary sources, due.

April 3: The Rise of Instructional Technology and Its Impact on Higher Education

Readings:

  • David Noble, “Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education,” First Monday, (Jan. 5, 1998).
  • Brier & Rosenzeig review of Digital Diploma Mills in The Nation, 2002 (scanned and available on the group site on the Academic Commons).
  • Fabricant and Brier, Austerity Blues, Ch. 6 “Technology As a Magic Bullet in the Era of Austerity.”
  • Newfield, The Great Mistake, Ch. 6 “Private Vendors Leverage Public Funds: The Case of MOOCs.”
  • Goldie Blumenstyk, “Arizona State Will Create a For-Profit Spinoff to Court Students in the Work Force,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 19, 2019 (copy on group site on the Academic Commons).
  • 2018 Horizon Report (scanned and available on the group site on the Academic Commons).
  • 2015 Educause TechWave report (scanned and available on the group site on the Academic Commons).

April 10: Academic Precarity and the Expansion of the Contingent Labor Force in Higher Education (Guest Presenter: Luke Elliott-Negri)

Readings:

 April 17: Presentations of Student Research Projects

April 19th through April 28: Spring Break (no class on April 24th)

 PART V: The Future of Public Higher Education

May 1: New Approaches to Teaching and Conducting and Publishing Academic Research Work

Readings: Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Planned Obsolescence, all.

May 8th: What’s Next for Public Universities? Guest Presenter: Dr. Robert Scott, former president of Adelphi University (NY – private) and Ramapo College (NJ – public)

Select two of the readings listed below (I won’t be copying material from all of them, so you’ll have to find the books in the library or online), read them and be prepared to come into class on May 8th with a question for Dr. Scott drawn from your readings as well as be able to make a summary statement about where you see public universities going in the future or where you think they should or can go. Also read several of Dr. Scott’s blog posts on higher education (choose ones most interesting to you), which you can find at: https://www.higheredjobs.com/blog/default.cfm?BlogID=22 [higheredjobs.com] as well as his short article “Observations on the Modern American University,” which I’ve uploaded to the Files section on the Group site.

Readings:

  • Aronowitz, Stanley, The Knowledge Factory: Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning (2000), choose chapters
  • Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University (2019), choose chapters
  • Fabricant & Brier, Austerity Blues, Chs. 4 – 5, 7 & Epilogue.
  • Newfield, Christopher, The Great Mistake, “Reconstructing the Public University,” pp. 305-40.
  • Crow & Debars, Designing the New American University (2015), chose chapters
  • Tobin & Bowen, Locus of Authority: The Evolution of Faculty Roles in the Governance of Higher Education, Ch. 5, “Overarching Challenges,” pp.177-212; and the CUNY Case Study, pp. 315-360 [available as an ebook on the Grad Center library site; search by title from a GC based computer or use your remote GC login privileges].

FINAL RESEARCH PAPER DUE SATURDAY, May 25th by Midnight

 

 

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