Editor’s note: This commentary is by Ron Jacobs who lives in Winooski and works in Burlington.
On Dec. 2, Bill Falls, the dean of University of Vermont’s College of Arts and Sciences, released a proposal to drastically cut the college’s programs. In subsequent interviews, Falls hinted that these cuts would “probably” cost some people their jobs. It seems unlikely that his is one of those jobs. According to the university, there is an $8.6 million shortfall projected for 2021. According to Falls, these cuts would not resolve that shortfall, even if every single faculty member involved were to be laid off. This begs the question then: Why do this?
Perhaps the answers can be found in a theory put forth by Naomi Klein that is known as the shock doctrine. In essence, this theory states that people in power in capitalist countries use natural disasters and the like to impose austerity measures on the general public in order to keep the plutocrats and their public servants comfortable and in power. Obviously, Covid-19 qualifies as a natural disaster. Its ongoing (and worsening) effects have dramatically changed college and most other elements of U.S. society. Like other natural disasters, the worst affected are the people at the bottom of the economic ladder. However, as this proposal at UVM makes clear, the rest of us are not immune.
I used to work at UVM. I was involved in organizing at least four union drives while I worked there. Two were successful and the others failed. Our reasons for organizing were straightforward — the UVM administration was consuming more and more of the university budget in salaries as it put a corporate model in place. Like the corporations it emulated, this model meant that not only was the college moving away from its proscribed mission to provide higher education to the people of Vermont, it was also flatlining the salaries of its employees and raising their health insurance premiums to make up shortfalls precipitated by the bloating of the administration and other management decisions based in corporate practices.
As an example of what I mean about a bloated administration, let me cite some November 2019 financial information regarding the published base salaries of the UVM administration. The total amount of monies paid to 21 of the 25 positions listed as UVM administration on their website is over $5 million, at $5,422,957. One can reasonably assume that the four salaries not publicly available would easily place this figure over $6 million. Once again, the shortfall is said to be at $8.6 million. Now, it is not my desire here to argue whether or not the individuals getting this money are worth it or not. However, it is to put forth a question about priorities. Just as it was the question when I worked at the university, the question remains: What are UVM’s priorities? Are they to provide a good and affordable education to Vermont’s high school graduates seeking a college degree, or are its priorities somewhere else, say in selling off the university to the highest bidder — one that has little interest in such disciplines as geology, religion or other majors and minors on the cutting board?
There is a reasonable theory that the UVM administration has long been targeting certain disciplines in the liberal arts for elimination. I would not be surprised if the plans announced Dec 2 were in the works for a while and the Covid-19 crisis merely provided the administration with the opportunity to implement them. Indeed, the apparent thoughtfulness in the targeting of certain departments by the administration implies something more than just a hasty response to an emergency situation.
It’s an accepted fact that some Vermonters could care less about UVM and higher education in general. In part, this is due to the university’s existence in a bubble that has excluded more and more working people from its buildings and greens as costs climbed higher and higher. However, what is happening at UVM is not exclusive to the institution or even higher education itself. The process being implemented at UVM and other schools around the United States is a process that can and will be modified by those in the seats of political and financial power to attack the jobs and benefits of U.S. residents all over the country. The process is called austerity. Its intention is to keep the wealthy rich at everyone else’s expense. Covi-19 is providing an excuse to impose it. The problem isn’t that there is not enough wealth in the United States to help everyone through the current crisis. The problem is that those who have it (and the politicians that serve them) are more interested in keeping that wealth for themselves.
