Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University

by Gaye Tuchman

Based on years of observation at a large state university, Wannabe U tracks the dispiriting consequences of trading in traditional educational values for loyalty to the market. Aping their boardroom idols, the new corporate administrators at such universities wander from job to job and reductively view the students there as future workers in need of training. Obsessed with measurable successes, they stress auditing and accountability, which leads to policies of surveillance and control dubiously cloaked in the guise of scientific administration. In this eye-opening exposé of the modern university, Tuchman paints a candid portrait of the corporatization of higher education and its impact on students and faculty. 

Like the best campus novelists, Tuchman entertains with her acidly witty observations of backstage power dynamics and faculty politics, but ultimately Wannabe U is a hard-hitting account of how higher education’s misguided pursuit of success fails us all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academia, Research, Education

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2009

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appreciated Gaye Tuchman’s take on the corporatization of academia and how much the desire to maximize profit influences higher education in the United States. Academia is not just a space where passionate intellectuals have free-roaming opportunities to advance knowledge and share wisdom with students. Though I think more people are aware of the corporatization of academia now, Tuchman’s 2008 book offers specific insights into how it has taken place at one large state school. She writes about the proliferation of administrators and the power they wield to generate money above all else, the pressure on faculty to pursue grants and publications that will serve as revenue streams, and how auditing and accountability manifest as mechanisms of control over professors’ autonomy. Tuchman’s prose is direct, and I like how she offers intelligent and honest critiques about how neoliberalism continues to infiltrate and permeate higher education.

Though I appreciated Tuchman’s naming of corporatization and how it affects university faculty, by the end of this book I wondered, where do we go from here? I think naming the problem is oftentimes the first step to generating solutions, though I wanted some brainstorming about how we can resist or organize against the corporatization of academia. I also feel like the book could have benefitted from a more nuanced take on the accountability of professors. While I see how professors having freedom to say and do what they want is important to ensure the safety of expression of ideas that may be controversial, I am also aware of quite a few faculty who abuse, neglect, and/or generally mistreat their students. How can we hold those faculty accountable for their actions (e.g., student evaluations that are analyzed with a critical lens?) while still promoting faculty autonomy? Finally, I wanted more of a discussion of how faculty members with marginalized identities can navigate this system, given the racism, heterosexism, sexism, and other forms of oppression that operate within academia (e.g., Presumed Incompetent II offers excellent narratives from women of color in academia).

Overall, I would recommend this book to those who want to learn about the corporatization of the university through an in-depth look at how that has manifested at one state school in particular. I would also recommend supplementing the book with perspectives of faculty of color and those engaged in campus activism and organizing. Yay to speaking truth to power (lol hopefully I don’t get roasted for saying that when I’m on the academic job market in a few years or when I apply for tenure in several more years)!

[Karen Jean Martinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be required reading for those of us entering (or attempting to enter) academia. Also, sociologists write differently from theatre scholars.

UPDATE: Having survived my first semester at an institution undergoing serious administrative changes, I see more and more the value of this book. I've actually recommended it to many of my colleagues. It's a weird time to be a college professor.

[Joseph Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

My freshman sociology professor said sociologists are better at finding problems than finding solutions. Wannabe U exemplifies that phrase. I liked Tuchman's exploration of how flashy UConn is becoming, administrative bloat, and the US News rankings rat race. The rising cost of undergraduate education is a hot button issue and the books helps us think about how we contribute to it. We prioritize rankings and campus beauty over more meaningful aspects of education, pushing up cost while marginally improving education at best.

But Wannabe U's downfall is Tuchman's dismissal of anything that doesn't meet her academic purity standards. She openly admits how bad teaching quality is among many professors but dismisses advice on how to improve pedagogy. And bemoaning the "accountability regime" pushed upon professors comes across as tone deaf when professors can't effectively enforce pedagogical standards. She also brings up a fantasy past where students went to college solely for intellectual enrichment. This may have been true for children of well-off families in the past but otherwise college has always been related to career advancement. She wants professors to remain insulated from the rest of the labor force, but this puts more onus on administrators to help students with career advising. And that leads to more administrative bloat.

I recommend the book for anyone who wants to know why their college was so expensive, why they had professors who couldn't teach, or why their college was a wannabe Ivy League school (UConn isn't even the worst offender on this one). It's useful for people who attended UConn prior to the 2000s and want to see how the prestige obsession is changing the school. Otherwise Wannabe U is hard to recommend.

[Isabelle Delisle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather anecdotal and based on unstated assumptions, that appear to be that administrators do not care about education, only about their career, or that management is not an area of expertise in its own right, with evolving practices based on research and experience.

[McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tuchman's premise in Wannabe U is that universities are becoming more and more like corporations, as concerns for revenue streams (research), auditing & accountability, and the belief that faculty do not know how to teach or govern, become more widespread. While I agree about some of the points Tuchman brings up, her narrative is so harshly anti-administration that it almost becomes offensive. She discusses how busy faculty already are, between their research, teaching, service, work with graduates, grading, involvement on committees, and personal lives, but then seems to be lamenting that universities are moving towards a model where professors have less responsibilities beyond teaching and research (even though many faculty members are already not involved in administrative committees or discussions about the non-academic concerns of the institution because they are too busy or not overly concerned). This is a very difficult conversation to have, but it is important that those involved in academia understand who is responsible for what. Tuchman's exploration of the potential effects of corporatization at state universities brings up necessary talking points, but her slanted viewpoint is not conducive to an informed and reasonable discussion of how to solve some of these problems.

My feeling after reading Wannabe U is that Tuchman is engaging in a nostalgia for the "good old days" when professors controlled the universities, knowledge was valued above all else, and administrators were simply support staff. I do not think there has ever been a time when knowledge for knowledge's sake was the main reason why people attended college, and as the world changes and universities expand and take on increasingly business-like roles for their communities and states, administrative staff is necessary to ensure the continued survival of higher education in our country. This is particularly true for "wannabe" universities that are not immediately recognized as the top tier universities, but that are supposed to be accessible by large portions of the population who want a quality education for an affordable price that will be relevant to their careers and future understanding of the world. Reading this did not contribute much to my overall understanding of higher education, but it did make me more aware of certain implications of the decisions made by universities attempting to remain competitive in the collegiate landscape.

[John G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a telling book from an insider, often find that's the greatest source of truth these days, a disgruntled and/disillusioned person who knows the system and wants to share the truth in unvarnished and unofficial terms. This book is quite serious, it's mildy satirical perhaps, but seems more sad than funny. It just feels like the soul of the universities are slowly being strangled and suffocated by the corporate bean counters and revenue maximizers and I sense the weariness in the writer's words and emotional tone. Make no mistake, the corporate mindset has indeed invaded and infected academia and I don't see any way we turn back, other than the phoenix rising from the ashes ex post facto. Education, just like health care, has become a commodity, and all this talk about "it's about the students" is pure drivel folks.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read about the influence the logic of corporate thinking and management has in academia. It focuses on a single school and talks about the tensions that exist within, especially between faculty and administrators. It argues that faculty members have ceded authority to administrators in conjunction with the rise of the accountability regime. The book is, however, sometimes caught half way between being a ethnographic case study of an institution undergoing change (including some excellent pointers to existing theory and research) and a jeremiad decrying these changes from the perspective of a faculty member. More of the latter would have made it more fun. Still, for those inside academic institutions, there is much you will recognize.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give 3 1/2 stars. This is a good book. Sometimes sad or maddening. Sometimes a little too slanted. The university is changing and many observers are understandably worried. It's hard not to wonder if the university didn't do all of its job teaching knowledge a couple generations ago and now it's coming home to roost. Are some of the problems self-created? That said, it is sad to see the managerial university take shape.

[Charlie Huenemann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up halfway. I do indeed loathe the advent of the corporate mindset among university administrators, with their suits and PowerPoints and "management by objectives" crap. But this is just a smug and tiresome rant passing itself off as a work of sociological research. It only provides ammunition to those who decry faculty as out-of-touch whiners. Now excuse me while I dash off to one of those back-slapping administrator receptions with the fancy hors d'oeuvres....

[Gerald]

Many top universities are playing this game of getting to the "next level" of "greatness" by following the same game plan -- leading to homogeneity and benchmarking, not necessarily addressing the uniqueness of their main clientele.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A timely book.

[Hoe Kyeung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insights on higher education. It really helps me understand systems in higher ed.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too descriptive and not critical enough.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great b/c it's about something so terrible. You'll hate to love it, but you sort of have to.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit biased, but also revealing.