Editor’s note: This article was updated to clarify that Barbara Humphrey was the coach of an Olympic gold medalist track star, not a gold medalist herself.
What do the CEO of a rice company, the head lawyer of BP’s defense against the 2010 oil spill lawsuits, and a board member of a “marine dealership” company have in common? They all take up a coveted seat on the University of Alabama System’s board of trustees.
The University of Alabama System represents The University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, encompassing tens of thousands of students across the entire state of Alabama. Leadership of such an instrumental organization must be in the hands of well-reasoned and competent educators and academic professionals, right? … Right?
Well, the University of Alabama System is run by the board of trustees. Looking at the system’s organizational flow chart, the board sits atop every other position.
Per the Alabama Constitution, the board consists of 16 seats: three for the congressional district Tuscaloosa sits in, two for every other congressional district in the state, and one for the governor. So, who exactly are the people we entrusted with the monumental task of running some of this state’s largest academic institutions?
As I spoiled in the introduction, many of the 16 board members are not people you would expect to oversee an academic system. The vast majority of those on the board are either in business (seven) or the legal profession (five). There is also a real estate agent, an orthopedic surgeon, and a one-time coach of an Olympic gold medalist track star.
What is noticeably lacking from this list is a single full-time collegiate educator, or anyone in a position to speak to the current situation in higher education.
This is interesting, considering two of the main focuses of the board are to “establish policies and goals of the University and direct the Chancellor to implement and achieve those policies and goals” and “review and approve academic plans, including new programs and new units, and major modifications in existing programs and units.” What qualifies most of the people on this board to make any of those decisions?
Seemingly nothing.
That is not to say that there is no academic experience on the board. Vanessa Leonard did consulting work in higher education, Barbara Humphrey (the coach of the gold medalist) is the head track and field coach at a middle school, and Scott Phelps taught at the University of Alabama School of Law for 10 years … two decades ago.
There is also Kay Ivey, who taught high school back in the her youth and served in higher-education roles in government, but given her often laissez-faire style of governance and her tendency to disappear without explanation for weeks on end, it is safe to say her breadth of educational knowledge may not be making its way to the board in many meaningful way.
This is not to minimize the educational experience of those on the board, but when this is the best experience that can be mustered at the top rungs of Alabama’s largest educational institution, it is hard not to laugh. Past the pure comedy of it, there are clearly dire consequences to not having voices in the room able to effectively advocate and push for the interests of the teachers and students that the board’s policies affect.
Perhaps the most evident consequence is the “McDonaldization” of The University of Alabama. According to ThoughtCo, “McDonaldization,” coined by sociologist George Ritzer, refers to a focus of social institutions on “efficiency, calculability, predictability and standardization, and control,” like that of a fast-food restaurant.
This departure from original goals toward efficiency and profit has a corrupting influence on institutions and those within them. It shifts focus away from the original purpose of those organizations.
This type of capitalist management has its grips in academia as well. A McUniversity is defined by Dennis Hayes, a professor at the University of Derby, as “a dehumanised factory, controlled by the bureaucracy and computers, which process and churn out more and more graduates.”
Does that sound familiar? It should. Now, knowing the type of person who is in positions of great power in the UA System (and the type of person who is not), is the fact that our University often feels like a business and not a place of learning any surprise?
Can we be surprised when we feel like cogs in a machine sitting in classes of 50 other students as one professor fights to keep our attention? Can we be surprised when new frat houses shoot up seemingly every year while the humanities buildings crumble from neglect?
Can we be surprised when the University continues to enroll more students as our dormitories already burst from over-occupancy? Can we be surprised when the University focuses so much energy on recruiting out-of-state students that only 40% of students at this state university are from Alabama?
No. When you have businesspeople running your university like a business, it shouldn’t be a surprise when your university becomes nothing but a cruel joke of an educational institution.
