Students across the country are protesting the privatization of education. They have joined forces with faculty and staff to fight budget cuts, layoffs, tuition hikes and other reforms.
Book publishers have contracts with universities so that students continue to buy overpriced and overproduced books.
At the same time, UH has a contract with Coca-Cola so that school events must serve its drinks, regardless of whether students would prefer something else.
These are only two of the many contracts and agreements that the University has with corporations that not only force their products on students but also limit the control that we have on how the University is run.
These deals are made without student input, and the limited powers of the Student Government Association leave us with these problems and the limited reforms those at the top want to enact.
The University wastes funds on many events and resources that do not directly benefit the student body.
Our money goes toward alcohol tabs, importing a sandlot, ice sculptures and fancy desserts at banquets. All of this happens while the school is championing the campaign for flagship status, to ask for more money and benefits so that our school can be perceived to be at a higher level.
Students are not the only ones affected by the way the University is run.
Maintenance workers and food service employees are overworked and underpaid. Many have worked on the campus for decades and have never received more than a dollar raise for their labor.
Teachers are forced to teach overcrowded classes they are not prepared for and don’t receive fair compensation, either.
The University is a prestigious institution, but not because of its fancy banquets or its ties to corporations. Its prestige lies in the faculty and staff that work hard every day to serve and educate the student body.
Students, faculty and staff who are interested in working together need to regain control of the University. If we truly want to make a change in how our school is managed, we must unite broadly.
We need to stop the continuing privatization of our school and make it prestigious for the right reasons. This battle is not about socialism against some other form of government; it is about our school being run in the interest of the people who make it and not those who profit from it.
Alejandro Cubria is a UH student and may be reached at [email protected]
