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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

No Sweat! sponsors discussion about corporate role of the University

Activist group alleges that administration overlooks academics

No Sweat!, a campus labor activism group, organized an open discussion on the topic of corporatization on campus Tuesday night.\nAmber Gallup, a visiting lecturer, introduced the discussion by asking the question, "What should the role of a University be?"\nThe audience responded with answers such as "to encourage critical thinking;" "to take responsibility for social injustices;" "to be in a place of empowerment;" and "to be active members of a democracy and to feel a sense of a positive community." Not one of the responses included the need or want to change the University to fit the style of a corporation or to run the University as if it were a large business.\nGallup believed that the sense of a positive community that is hoped for usually takes place on campus, but she said even things in the classroom are changing.\n "The departments are in competition to get the involvement that they need from students, to get the funding that they need, to get the professors that they need," Gallup said. \n "To do this the departments have to get as many students in the classrooms as possible. They have to pack the students in and they're going to have to basically sink to the lowest common denominator in some cases and offer courses that aren't as rigorous, because they don't want to keep people away."\n School departments, as a whole on this campus are treated unequally, said Erik Woodworth who is taking a semester off from IU. He said regardless of academic standing, the Kelley School of Business continues to thrive while other departments are failing.\n "Take the music school," Woodworth said. "It's the best music school in the country and it's in debt. The business school, regardless of its national ranking, brings in a large revenue every year."\nMaia Bailey, a graduate student, agreed the focus of who and what is important at the University has shifted over the years.\n"We voice elective choices about what would be good for the students but it's against what would be good for corporations," Bailey said. "And do we see it going towards the students? No, we see it going towards a corporation's needs, continually."\nGraduate student Tom Buckingham said he wanted to know what happens to all the money the University gets from parking, meal points, grade release, phone registration, transcript release, as well as steadily increasing tuition.\n"I want to know what all the money is used for," Buckingham said. "And I want to know where it will be used in the future. What is the University's vision? I want to know where we will be in five years."\nMany organization leaders, like Gallup, said that although there might not be immediate gratification through change on campus, people are motivated to act now and take a stand. \n"People care about justice," Gallup said. "It's the only way that social change gets done. People come together because they care about justice and want to make a change. People on this campus are no different than any other people in human history"

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