In the past few weeks, much has been said about the scandals, follies and errors that led to Chancellor Nicholas Dirks’ resignation. Dirks was less the victim of inexperience and incompetence than that of adherence to the failed policies of his predecessors. Capitulation to “the new normal” of reduced state funding and the enthusiastic embrace of privatization has been the common sense of Berkeley’s leadership for over a decade. While electorates around the world have revolted against those policies and scholars across the spectrum have challenged their fiscal logic, Dirks steadfastly championed them, even touting them as a “new” model for preserving the public good. In fact, these are precisely the policies that, before Dirks ever took office, produced Berkeley’s structural deficit. Now, many of Dirks’ keenest faculty and administrative critics want to accelerate those failed policies.

Read full article [here].
by Wendy Brown, Michael Burawoy, Celeste Langan, Colleen Lye, James Vernon and Dick Walker, The Daily Californian.

Posted: August 30th, 2016, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.