The Ethics Of The Marketplace Are Detrimental To Our Universities

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As the media has focused on DEI initiatives and student encampments at our universities, most Washingtonians are likely unaware of the crisis brewing within our flagship institutions. Hints of trouble surfaced at Washington State University in March, when two former provosts and several tenured faculty went public with their concerns about administrative bloat, deep cuts to teaching and plummeting faculty morale.

At the University of Washington, where I have been a professor for over 25 years, this is eerily familiar. Administration costs have ballooned by approximately 25% while the number and pay of tenured and tenure-eligible faculty have flatlined over the past decade, according to the UW chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Furthermore, as a faculty senator, I have spoken with scores of my colleagues across campus and it is striking how widespread are the sentiments of alienation and complaints of institutional dysfunction.

There are many indications that the rise of market ethics is setting up UW for an unpleasant outcome as well. Thirty-five percent of the incoming freshman class is now routinely out-of-state students because they can be charged more. This de facto pay-for-play admissions policy makes a mockery of UW's professed commitment to Washington citizens. It also means fewer Washington alumni who will be around to lobby state policymakers for public funding in the future.

During the past year, affordable housing for low-income students with families has been sold off to private developers to generate more money. In the context of constant sloganeering about commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, decreasing assistance to underprivileged students reeks of hypocrisy and thus extracts a high reputational cost. Student-run cafes and the UW Faculty Club have been shuttered for cost-saving purposes. It is dubious whether such savings are worth the harm caused by the elimination of spaces where collegiality, networking and innovative ideas are nurtured. Faculty salaries are no longer determined foremost by merit or rank — instead by whether one can get a job offer elsewhere to prove one's "market value." Cynicism and disaffection are the predictable effects of rewarding employees for disloyalty rather than quality work.