My Rant for the Week [Repost]

by Lauren Souther

  This is a repost of a blogpost created during the author's time as a summer intern for the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond on June 14th, 2014. For more about her internship experience at the Museum, visit http://southerlauren.wix.com/internatvaholocaust. 

Lauren at her internship site in 2014

Ok so I finished my first week as an intern at VHM!  I am excited, yet throughout these first 5 days, I have noticed some things that have been really frustrating. This is not the first time that I have noticed certain "problems."  Let me explain. Like I said before, the Holocaust has always interested me ever since I was 13. Since then, I have noticed some negatives surrounding by passion and career goals. Here is a list of these 5 issues that have really frustrated, and even angered me, over the years.

1.  Why are you doing this to yourself? The Holocaust is so depressing!...

     This one has probably frustrated me the most over the years. I have a B.A. in history. I am going for my Masters in Public History. I have visited Holocaust museums for over a decade. I know about the genocide. For those of you who have asked me this question "Why are you doing this to yourself?"  Don't you think I know that the Holocaust is not a warm and fuzzy subject. That is one of the many reasons why I want to dedicate my life researching it and working to educate people about it. It is an honor and a blessing to be able to intern at the VHM. I feel like I am doing more than just dishing out historical facts; I am actively taking part in educating the public about the horrors of genocide, hopefully, in order to stop another Holocaust from occurring. So, yes, it is depressing, but not as depressing as when I hear people say they do not want to work in a Holocaust Museum because it is a sad subject.

2. Why do you care so much? You are not even Jewish...

      This one is probably equally annoying. Almost everytime that I tell someone that I am interested in Holocaust history, they ask me if I am Jewish. I am not Jewish. Yes, six million Jews died in the Holocaust, but the genocide claimed other non-Jewish victims. Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, Roma, Poles, and the handicapped, just to name a couple. The Holocaust, although it had a profound impact in Jewish history, is not all about Jews. Furthermore, I do not care that I am not Jewish. I argue that I do have a personal connection to these victims. I am a human being. The millions who were killed were human beings. Therefore, I feel I have the duty to help tell their story.

3.  Why is there a Holocaust museum in Richmond? That seems random...

     First of all, there are actually numerous Holocaust survivors that immigrated to Richmond or the surrounding areas. Because of that, it would only seem natural for them to want a memorial/museum to tell their stories. If it was up to me, there would be a Holocaust museum in every state, at least one. It is not random. It is an important piece of history that is often overlooked in the classrooms. I do not even remember learning much about it in middle or high school. I did learn about it in museums. Museums are tools that are better than lectures or textbooks.

4. Disrespectful museum visitors...

     Visiting a Holocaust museum is like visiting a cemetery. The museum deserves a certain amount of dignity and respect. If you think you can not be respectful, do not visit. Do not bring young kids who you know are going to be too loud. The VHM, as well as other museums like it, is a solemn place. You go there to learn and pay respect to those who have perished. It amazes me how so many people, especially adults, do not understand this.

5. Indifferent museum staff...

   I understand that most people are not going to be as passionate as me about the Holocaust, even museum workers who work at these museums. That's ok. That's not what annoys me. I remember sitting in on a lecture given by a young college grad who just finished interning at a Holocaust museum. I will not say which one. She was shocked to see some staff members who appeared to be indifferent about the genocide, and just simply not interested in the subject. Here was this girl so interested in getting a job at this museum, and I can only imagine her frustration. Luckily, all of the workers I have met so far at VHM seem passionate about the subject matter. Passion, to me, is important in every job.

Blogger Bio:

Lauren graduated from our Public History program with distinction in May, 2015.  She has had a few internship and work experiences since graduation. Currently, she is serving as an Americorps fellow at the North House Museum AFHA in West Virginia. Lauren is passionate about the education of Holocaust History. Besides connecting with us, she wants to use this post to expound on what it means to work in a Holocaust museum. 

What Is To Be Done?: Combating Neoliberalism on Campus through the Student Movement

by Connor Harney

In a 2013 article published in the Guardian, Peter Higgs, the famed Nobel Prize-winning Physicist, lamented at what he perceived as lack of productivity within the context of the new academic culture.  Higgs, who published only 10 articles after his award-winning research on the process by which subatomic materials acquire mass, stated that had he been held to the current expectations of publishing an article a year: “It’s hard to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present climate to do what I did in 1964.”^[1] The case of Higgs is merely anecdotal evidence of the larger problem within higher education, which is that those in charge have succeeded in proletarianizing academia—instead of real meaningful work, professors are judged by the quantity of their publications, so that the administration can tout the productivity of the faculty along with the litany of little worker bees that they crank out every year like an assembly line. Many of our most brilliant minds are being stifled by such a system, and choose to pursue less meaningful work over substantiality because many of them are afraid of losing their increasingly tenuous employment at their university.  These relations do not merely apply to faculty, but students as well.  More and more, a degree from a university no longer symbolizes knowledge acquired through vigorous intellectual pursuits, but instead an investment, with some having better returns than others.

Portrait of Peter Higgs by Ken Currie (Photo source: Wikipedia)

In the age of Neoliberalism, governments around the world and the powers that they represent are slowly but surely integrating all aspects of life into the marketplace. Human relations are one by one being transformed into market relations and gradually alienating human beings from one another.  These relations have been applied to the UNC system and public university systems across the country and thus, higher education has become increasingly inaccessible to those coming from low-income families as tuition has gradually become one of the most important levers to funding these institutions.  Rather than being treated as places of refuge for the pursuit of knowledge, higher education becomes a business, as they increasingly function not from state allocated funds, but from consumers themselves, in this case, the students.  Ultimately, these students lose their role as students, and instead take on the dual role of consumer and commodity. It does not matter that often times these degrees become diluted and cease to mean that the student has acquired a well-rounded education, but instead, has proved that they could be a vessel to be filled with “facts” and “answers” day in and day out for four years, but knowing just as much as they did when they came in.

Unfortunately, this trend does not seem to be going anywhere. Despite the fact that, as David Harvey has noted, “the closer the economy converges on its pure state, the deeper crisis will likely become,” as long as the politics of austerity are championed by politicians both of the liberal and conservative variety.  This means the more that public works continue to be privatized and the less regulations are put upon private enterprise, the more detrimental future economic crises will become.^[2] As long as what little social safety net and welfare is up for grabs, and the tendency toward privatization remains intact, working people already suffering will only suffer more the next time a crisis wracks our economic system. And, in many ways, this crisis of overproduction is making itself felt, and as long as many can no longer afford to consume given their current situation, there is not enough spending to realize surplus-value in the market.  In practical sense, this means that the university system will increasingly place the burden of funding on students, as the state slowly but surely privatizes the university system and turns it into an industry that is open to the fluctuations of the market. This is evidenced by the allocations of funding for the UNC system. For the 2014-2015 fiscal year, around $1.7 billion went to fund Appalachian State and the 16 other universities that make up the university system, while around $2.7 billion was appropriated from tax revenues within the state budget.  In effect, the amount of funding through tuition amounted to a third of the university system’s budget across the state.^[3]  It is no surprise then, that there is such a problem with student debt in this country, and if the trend continues, this onus put on the students will become more pronounced. Not only does this phenomenon magnify the impoverishment of low-income students wishing to better themselves through higher education, it effectively keeps them from fulfilling their scholastic aspirations, due to their obligation to work in order to keep themselves from sinking into insurmountable debt. Who knows what great intellect we are depriving society of in this manner? 

So then, what needs to be done? Students could just throw up their hands and groan “That’s just the way it is.” A cursory look back shows that things have not always been this way, indeed, an examination of the flagship school UNC Chapel Hill’s budget for the years 1985-86 attest to this fact, as only 5.8% of the university’s funding came from tuition and student fees.^[4]  With proper pressure from below, meaning the faculty and the students, this breakdown can be made reality again. Across the country, student movements are attempting to make their voices heard, and Appalachian State is no exception. 

This semester, a group called Appalachian Student Power has organized large rallies in order to highlight the seemingly misplaced priorities of the administration.  The organization created a list of proposals that they made public. It is a powerful document indeed, in that it suggests ways that funds could be alternatively allocated in order to “create an environment at Appalachian State University that puts the mental, physical, and financial well-being of students, faculty, staff, and their families above the preservation and propagation of Appalachian State as a brand, sports team, or commodity.”^[5] This statement of purpose is essentially a battle cry against austerity and the Neoliberal ideology behind it. As a long time student at ASU, it makes me proud to see such momentum and action among the student body and can only hope that it continues. 

Author of this post, man in sunglasses holding a purple sign, protesting with the App State Student Power at a rally (Photo source: App State Student Power Facebook page)

While I remain hopeful for the student movement not only here on campus at ASU but for the wider movement nationwide, there are some suggestions that seem more beneficial to the continuation of this movement than others. First, if Mizzou has taught organizers nationwide anything, it should be the necessity to utilize and formalize collective bargaining as a means of challenging these currents in academia.^[6] What does that mean in practice? students and faculty, especially tenured faculty, as they have more respite from any tactics of retaliation that the administration may employ due to the nature of the tenure system, must band together in order to form a coherent means of making their voices heard.  This means possibly forming a viable union made up of both students and professors. Of utmost importance is the athletics department’s support of such a movement.  It was not until the football team at Mizzou came forward in support of student activists that the administration acknowledged their demands. At ASU that means possibly changing some direction—as noted above, it is not so much the allocation of funds to athletics, but rather the way that the university is funded. Thus, when discussing the role of students in this union, this must also mean student-athletes as well.  The onus should be on the state to provide education, not the young adult students entering the adult world for the first time who can ill afford to pay for their degrees without major financial assistance. This means addressing not only inconsistencies in this neoliberal logic on campus but across the state and the country as well.  The faculty has made some attempts to address this through a resolution passed through the Faculty Senate, which called into question the recent appointment of Margaret Spellings as president of the UNC system, and noted their “serious reservations” on the legitimacy of a woman who has not only made disparaging comments toward the LGBT community but was also the Secretary of Education in the Bush White House and was most responsible for the No Child Left Behind program being put at the helm of the university system.^[7]

Faculty protesting at an event (Photo sourse: Aaup Appalachian Facebook page)

Faculty protesting at an event (Photo sourse: Aaup Appalachian Facebook page)

       The faculty is right in questioning Spellings credentials, as her past only reflects the politics of privatization addressed above, but the students and the faculty must do more than pass resolutions—they must demand change.  Of course, this coalition of students and professors is undeniably important; however, there is another crucial component that has been often overlooked, and that is the role of the community. If this coalition could garner the support of the community at large, it could give real power to the movement. How can the student movement rally the large community in Boone and the wider Watauga county area? First, this would entail a massive program for community outreach. 

Many working people in town resent the presence of the university largely due to the process of gentrification that the unprecedented growth of the school has brought and the dislocation of many of Boone’s traditional inhabitants to the outskirts of town. There is also the aloofness with which many students show toward the townspeople of Boone. In order to rectify this situation, any student movement would need to think of ways to address the gentrification of the town and ways that the university can help to alleviate the worst instances of poverty in the community. Not only that, it needs to be stressed that a reprioritization of how universities are funded would make these institutions more accessible to low-income families. Instead of constructing luxury apartments that are well out of the tenable range for most working people and students, such as the newly constructed Lofts that start at $750 a month in rent, the students and the citizens of Boone should influence developers to create housing that is both affordable and sustainable (here's looking at you Meadowview).^[8]

(Photo source: App State Student Power)

Finally, while it seems that many movements across the country are resistant to allowing a formal leadership, due in large part to a desire for a democratic resistance movement, in practice, it often leads to scattered priorities and a lack of clear objectives. Hopefully, this fear can be overcome, and a more coherent movement will emerge to challenge the politics of austerity in higher education.   The coalition outlined here may mean that many activists will have to learn to work with elements that may take them out of their comfort zone, but this is a hurdle that needs to be overcome.  It will be interesting to see how the battle against Neoliberalism will play out across campuses, but it is important to remember that the United States has a long history of student movements, of which this movement will hopefully be the next chapter.  

Blogger Bio:

Connor Harney, 24, is a second year graduate student in the History Department at Appalachian State University. His specialization is in Latin American History in particular The Cuban Revolution. After his tenure at ASU, he hopes to attend UNC Chapel Hill and complete a dissertation on the role of ideological pragmatism and its relation to the continuation of the Cuban Revolution. When not engaged in coursework he enjoys all things fitness related, binge watching Netflix, and reading social and economic theory.

---

^[1] Decca Aitkenhead, “Peter Higgs: I Wouldn't Be Productive Enough For Today's Academic System,” The Guardian, 6 December 2013, accessed December 3, 2015,  http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-boson-academic-system.

^[2] David Harvey, A Companion To Marx’s Capital, vol. 2 (New York: Verso, 2013), 13.

^[3] Pat McCrory, The Governor’s Recommended Budge, 2015-2017, March 2015, accessed December 3, 2015, https://ncosbm.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/documents/files/BudgetBook_2015.pdf .

^[4] UNC Chapel Hill, Fact Book 1986-87, 1^st edition, April 1987, accessed December 3, 2015, http://oira.unc.edu/files/2012/03/fb1986_1987.pdf.

^[5] Appalachian State Student Power, “Proposal from Student Power,” accessed December 3, 2015, https://www.docdroid.net/6KiEtUL/proposalfromstudentpower.pdf.html .

^[6]“UM System President Wolfe Resigns MU Chancellor to new role; UM Board of  Curator  announces significant diversity and inclusion initiatives,” Inside UM System, November 9, 2015, accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/news/leadership_news/news_110915/.

^[7] Stancill, Jane, “Appalachian State Faculty Raise Concerns About Spellings,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), December 3, 2015, accessed December 4, 2015, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article47868485.html .

^[8] The Lofts at University Hall Drive, “Apartment Pricing and Details,” The Lofts at University Hall Drive, accessed December 7, 2015, http://www.loftsatuniversityhall.com/#!pricing/c7cs.