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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
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Panel discusses corporate influence on public institutions NIKITA BIRYUKOV ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
A panel of activists and organizers gathered in front of roughly 30 students Monday to discuss the increasing presence of private entities and funds at Rutgers. Called “Know Where Your Money Goes: Neoliberalization and Corporatization of the University,” the panel touched on a broad range of issues facing the University, including changing graduate positions, corporate influence in classrooms and business-like management that prioritizes profit over education. Katherine Gray, president of the Graduate Student Association and a student in the Rutgers Graduate School—New Brunswick, said the University had been phasing out teaching and graduate assistant positions and replacing them with fellowships. “What happens when graduate students are no longer (teaching assistants) but become fellows is that they are thrust into a circumstance in which they have more precarious health benefits,” Gray said. “They are receiving a substantially lower salary, and they are thrust into the position of being part time lecturers.” Both fellowships and teaching positions have always existed at Rutgers,
said University spokesman E.J. Miranda in an email. Many graduate students move between these two types of posts during their graduate studies. Differences in the pay and benefits these positions offer are a result of the work required, he said. “While there are differences in compensation between a graduate fellow and a teaching assistant, there are also different responsibilities and expectations,” he said. “Teaching assistants are expected to work a set number of hours per week while fellows are able to completely focus on their studies.” Deepa Kumar, the vice president of the faculty union, the American Association of University Professors—American Federation of Teachers, said rising tuition costs and increasing student debt figures were evidence of corporate interests taking control of the University. “Today the average student debt is huge. People in this country who are your age owe $1.2 trillion dollars,” Kumar said to the crowd of college students arrayed in front of her. “That shouldn’t be the case. If we had our priorities straight and we didn’t live in a neoliberal society which values profit over everything else, education would be free.” The rise in tuition is largely a result of falling state subsidies. According
to Rutgers’ budget documents, Rutgers students paid 67.8 percent of their education costs through their tuition and associated fees. In 1990, students paid only 32.9 percent. Private investments help offset the strain caused by plummeting state appropriations, which according to the Rutgers budget, now account for 18.6 percent of the University’s $2 billion education and general revenues. Public funding is now so low that Sherry Wolf, one of the event’s panelists and lead organizer of AAUP-AFT, said public universities, like Rutgers, are “almost public in name only.” “In an era of diminishing public investments, the need for private support for higher education has never been greater,” Miranda said. “Rutgers will continue to explore and seize opportunities to use existing resources, solicit private gifts, form public-private partnerships and seek foundation and government grants to carry forward our mission of teaching, research and public service” But Kumar’s concern lay not in the presence of private money, but in the control over the University’s “agenda” the investments could offer corporations and the “economic elite.” “No corporation is going to give you money and say ‘great, (teach) the next generation of citizens who have critical thinking skills and will
Several activists discussed how corporations could have influence over universities by way of financial contributions, which make up a large part of their budget. MARIELLE SUMERGIDO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER challenge anything we make them do in our workplaces,’” she said. Liberal arts programs, academic freedom and research unlikely to be profitable would see the brunt of the harm, she said. Recently, the University’s “Our Rutgers, Our Future” campaign raised more than $1 billion with through donations from “tens of thousands of alumni and friends of Rutgers,” Miranda said. The contributions will be used to fund, among other things, scholar-
ships, fellowships, faculty research and University development projects. But private sources have done little to slow the growth of tuition prices, which saw a 2.3 percent increase last year. “The faculty union, for example, here at rutgers very much stands full square with the students in a fight to at the very least freeze tuition, and frankly it’s time for a rollback,” Wolf said. “This place calls itself revolutionary? Do something revolutionary.”
Women in ITI program helps new students network
The Women in ITI program, inspired by the information technology and informatics major, helps women network with professionals in the field. COURTESY OF MANISHA MEDIDI
SUSMITA PARUCHURI DESIGN EDITOR
With the rise of the information technology and informatics (ITI) major in the School of Communication and Information, the Women in ITI (WITI) group aims to provide a sense of community to the students, as well as networking opportunities. Founded in 2014 by ITI program director Sharon Stoerger, who wanted women to have more representation in the field, WITI started its first year as academically oriented organization, said WITI co-President Manisha Medidi.
“We wanted to bridge the gap between students and the corporate world so they have the opportunity to rehearse and get all the opportunities that are out there,” the School of Arts and Sciences senior said. The group holds networking sessions, programs for resume building and provides opportunities for students to connect to representatives from corporations and learn about their work environment. WITI comes in with the recent boom in ITI majors, enabling them to finally separate from other STEM fields to form their own organizations.
Typically grouped together, there is a divide between the computer science and ITI students because the curriculums do not match, said Kahini Amin, a WITI co-president and a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “The women in computer science group (has) been pretty active on campus, so it’s good to have something different,” she said. The WITI does not accept just women. In fact, the group’s fundraising chair Vivek Singh, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, is part of the ITI Council and joined WITI to help them expand, he said. While the 2014-2015 board consisted of only women, WITI noticed that men were just as interested in the organization as women were. The group sees about an equal ratio of men to women at their events, Amin said. “That’s a good sign for us,” Medidi said. “It lets us know that our events are making an impact, that they’re making use of it. They are taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there.” WITI’s events have had turnouts of more than 40 people. The organization hosts a “WITI Talks” series that highlights different sectors of the IT sector during each event, she said. Last week the group targeted
consulting, with a presentation featuring panelists from Deloitte, Ernst & Young and Accenture. Students had plenty of questions, and the representatives stayed back to network with them, Medidi said. Madiha Irfan, a School of Arts and Sciences junior who serves as the board’s executive assistant and will be the president in the next academic year, has seen the group work for her. After winning the 2015 Johnson & Johnson Case Competition with her group. She said she was then offered a Johnson & Johnson summer internship, all through WITI. She also found her current co-op with UPS through WITI after handing over a resume to a representative at a WITI event. “My sister is a recent graduate and she comes to the events too, and she really loves them,” Irfan said. “So guys, girls, undergrads, grads, everyone can make use of it.” In addition to networking and corporate-based events, the club also holds trips — last year they visited the Tumblr offices — and socials to get to know other people within the major. Because the major is growing, WITI is also targeting newer ITI students with its upcoming peer
mentor event, Irfan said. They plan to pair seniors with incoming ITI students to share their experiences and help the new students figure out their paths. “It’s good to have a network of your own, because once you graduate, these are the people that you’re going to have,” Amin said. The organization provides community to both male and female ITI majors, but as the Women in ITI group they aim to increase representation for women in the field. Stoerger’s goal in founding the group was to make sure women had a voice in the male-dominated field, Medidi said. Outside of the corporate world, at Rutgers specifically, the club provides a sense of community and allows students to be surrounded by others who are in similar situations, Amin said. Having an established organization can be helpful to students, specially those new to the major. Simply being around ambitious people can be motivating, Irfan said. She attributes her successes so far to WITI. “For me, choosing to major in ITI was one of the best decisions I made in college and the second best decision I made was to join WITI,” she said.
VOLUME 148, ISSUE 41 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • OPINIONS ... 4 • CLASSIFIEDS ... 5 • FOOD & DRINK ... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK