Dear Commons Community,

Rob Jenkins, an associate professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College, takes a shot at Bill Gates in a column for  The Chronicle of Higher Education,  Jenkins position is that Bill Gates essentially sees higher education mission as serving corporate America.  To quote:

“I don’t begrudge the man [Gates] his vision, nor does it bother me that he uses his millions to advance it. That’s his right, and I don’t doubt that he believes he’s doing good.

I just think he’s wrong. I think much of what he assumes would be good for higher education would actually be bad for higher education—and, more specifically, for community-college students. And I believe that faculty members, along with responsible administrators and legislators, have a duty to stand up and say, “No, that’s not going to work. It’s not a good idea.”

The essential problem with Gates’s vision is that, at heart, it’s corporatist. I understand that “corporatism,” for historians and political scientists, refers to a specific economic theory, and I apologize for co-opting the term. I’m using it here in much the same way one might use “statist” to describe a person who believes in the primacy of the state. A corporatist, in that sense, is one for whom social institutions—particularly education—exist to serve corporations.”

Jenkins also sees Gates as advancing a two-tiered system of higher education that relegates the masses of students to online, MOOC-like courses while the elite have the benefit of a classical, private education where teachers and students interact in small classes and not in large, electronic lecture halls.

“…what Gates and other like-minded individuals are attempting to recreate for colleges and universities at the national level: a system in which the majority of students—those at community colleges and smaller regional institutions—are stuck in large auditoriums watching talking heads on giant screens, while a much smaller group of elite students gets to attend “real” universities where they receive personalized instruction in small groups. Such a system would certainly work well for corporations, as it would create both a large “trained work force” and an elite managerial class.

I’m not a Marxist. I don’t have a problem with corporations that operate legally and responsibly. I understand that corporations can act as economic engines and do a great deal of good for society. But as a community-college faculty member, I don’t believe their priorities should necessarily be my priorities, any more than I believe that the primary purpose of a college education is to train students for particular jobs.”

Jenkins states well his position.  In addition, I would say that Gates is also a monopolist who tries to control everything involved with his business including the market.  He has taken this approach to his Foundation where he not only seeks to fund projects but also to influence education policy at all levels.  He has no qualms about using his Foundation’s resources to lobby policymakers, to manipulate the media, and to position his people in departments of education to get his way.  There is indeed a problem with Bill Gates’ vision for higher education as well as with the means by which he seeks to achieve it.

Tony