At a teach-in today regarding the recently-announced student health fee, Fight the Fee student leaders spoke at length about the fee, University finances, and the relationship between students and University administrators and trustees.
The hour-long discussion, entitled “$350 is Everything: a #fightthefee teach-in,” began with a recitation of an original poem by Zakiya Wells ’17 on the role of radicalism in student protest. Then Daniel Waid Marshall ’15 and Keanu Stryker ’17 took turns discussing specific grievances against the University, their demands, and plans of action to reshape how the University functions with specific regard to student-administrator relations.
Marshall began by outlining Fight the Fee’s basic argument that their demands–including a greater student role in drafting University policy and greater respect from administrators–are “incredibly reasonable” and are a “radical departure from the world we live in.” The point of this teach-in was to help others “understand the structural implications of our struggle,” according to Marshall.
Following this introduction, Marshall reviewed what most in-tune students already know about the student health fee–namely, that less than half ($150 out of $350) is going directly to expanding health services at Gannett.
Stryker then spoke on the topic of “the politics of respectability,” offering a rebuke to criticism the group has received from many students, including those in The Cornell Review, for the cacophonous, disheveled encounter with University President David Skorton during last week’s occupation of Day Hall. Stryker referred to Skorton’s demeanor and choice of words with protest leaders as “condescending” and “patronizing,” and remarked, “I was honestly done with it.”
The two next spoke on the topic of “Where is the money going?” They criticized some of the spending choices Cornell makes, including what they referred to as “administrative bloating.” Marshall argued that the University hires too many highly-paid executive administrators, many of whom work in University public relations and fundraising roles rather than in roles that directly interact with students.
“[Cornell’s] rising tuition is going to people who explain why tuition is rising,” said Marshall, who specifically outed Vice President of University Relations as one such administrator.
In speaking about Cornell’s capital project spending, Marshall and Stryker made a point about how the University funds many of these projects through debt, namely via bond issuance, which is standard practice among many private and public universities. Marhsall and Stryker argued Skorton’s calls for austerity and description of the University budget are misguided when Cornell can “create money out of nothing” by issuing bonds and taking out loans. (Note: Borrowing money from financial markets is not creating money out of nothing. Only the federal government can create money out of nothing via the Federal Reserve and the fractional reserve banking system.)
There was also criticism of University spending on consulting and for the numerous lavish sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) celebrations around the world this academic year.
Following this topic, Marshall spoke at length about the “neoliberal university.” According to Fight the Fee speakers, Cornell is such a university.
On the PowerPoint slide accompanying this segment of the event read the words: “The neoliberal university has become a global corporation focused on the highest return on its investments (including you).” Marshall identified the neoliberal university’s ability to self-regulate, individual responsibility instead of community support, and prioritization of financial relationships—“donors over diversity”—as major problems. Stryker also chimed in with a criticism of the University for spending more money on STEM fields than in the humanities because the latter are less lucrative.
To wrap up the event, Fight the Fee student leaders urged students to call the administration and board of trustees out on “their bullshit pseudo shared governance and demand power.” Marshall called for students to “use serious action to disrupt actual power where it really is.” In order to do this, Marshall urged students to “shut it down” and “change things from bottom up.”
After Fight the Fee leaders finished their presentation, audience members fielded questions and delivered short remarks. Wyatt Nelson ’16, who co-authored a recent Cornell Daily Sun guest column calling for the creation of a student union with veto power over University policy, spoke at length addressing criticisms of his op-ed and called on students to be more active in their opposition to the administration and the board of trustees. He specifically mentioned blocking campus streets and piling snow in front of doors as possible tactics.
Other students expressed their thoughts, and plans were made for future meetings, including a meeting with Skorton scheduled for next Friday.
