The graduate student experience in the neoliberal academy
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2984
This commentary discusses graduate student perspectives on the disjuncture between the neoliberal framing of value as pursuit of economic profit and the academic community’s pursuit of knowledge. Declining opportunities and the devaluing of different frames of knowledge and practice in the academy suppress graduate students’ ability to contribute to their chosen fields of study and to create value in novel ways. Our participation as graduate students in the academic community, including organizations such as American Association of University Professors, has been instrumental in articulating the interconnectedness of the systemic consequences that the neoliberal constitution of value has on the campus and community.
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Shaheen M. Christie
Anuac
The graduate student experience in the neoliberal academy
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6
Forum: Anthropologists Witnessing and Reshaping the Neoliberal Academy
2017-07-18
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2017-07-17
2017-07-18
69-75
1
Shaheen M. Christie
2017/07/18
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2984
69
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States
2239-625X
1
en
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The graduate student experience in the neoliberal academy
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                                                  2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 69-75




                                                                                              FORUM




Student demonstration against fees and cuts, Aberdeen. Credits: http://anticuts.com/wp-content/uploads /
2015/07/ Aberdeen-student-left-banner.jpg


Anthropologists witnessing and reshaping the neoliberal academy
Edited by
Tracey HEATHERINGTON & Filippo M. ZERILLI

Contributions of
Virginia R. DOMINGUEZ, Sam BECK, Carl A. MAIDA, Martin A. MILLS, Berardino
PALUMBO, Alan SMART, Ger DUIJZINGS, Alexis M. JORDAN & Shaheen M. CHRISTIE,
Boone W. SHEAR, Alex KOENSLER & Cristina PAPA, THE RECLAIMING OUR UNIVERSITY
MOVEMENT.




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © ALEXIS M. JORDAN, SHAHEEN M. CHRISTIE
The graduate student experience in the neoliberal academy
2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 69-75.
ISSN: 2239-625X – DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2984
ANTHROPOLOGISTS WITNESSING AND RESHAPING THE NEOLIBERAL ACADEMY                             69




The graduate student experience in the neoliberal academy
Alexis M. JORDAN
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Shaheen M. CHRISTIE
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee



ABSTRACT: This commentary discusses graduate student perspectives on the disjuncture be-
tween the neoliberal framing of value as pursuit of economic profit and the academic com -
munity’s pursuit of knowledge. Declining opportunities and the devaluing of different
frames of knowledge and practice in the academy suppress graduate students’ ability to con-
tribute to their chosen fields of study and to create value in novel ways. Our participation as
graduate students in the academic community, including organizations such as American
Association of University Professors, has been instrumental in articulating the interconnect-
edness of the systemic consequences that the neoliberal constitution of value has on the
campus and community.



Introduction
   The 2015-2017 state budget instituted drastic cuts to higher education in
Wisconsin. While the threats to tenure, academic freedom, and shared gover-
nance have been well documented (Buff 2015b; Hertzog 2016b; Savidge
2016; Strauss 2015), the circumstances of graduate students are often over-
looked in broader discussions of the challenges faced by the University of
Wisconsin (UW) System1. As current anthropology PhD students at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), in this commentary we highlight
impacts of declining state investment in higher education on our ability to
carry out research and outline how our involvement in the American Associ-
ation of University Professors (AAUP) links graduate student experiences
with university- and community-wide efforts to promote the values associ-

1. First and foremost, we would like to thank Lara Ghisleni for her support and outstanding
editorial skills. We would also like to thank the Anuac editors, Tracey Heatherington and
Filippo Zerilli for their assistance and patience, with special thanks to Tracey Heatherington
for inviting us to contribute our thoughts to this important ongoing discussion in higher
education.

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70                                              TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)


ated with Wisconsin higher education. In the context of coalition building,
we advance the broader aim of protecting the university community as a
space for intellectual innovation and freedom.
   A consequence of the budget cuts is the decline in funding opportunities
for graduate students, such as teaching assistantships, departmental scholar-
ships, and work study positions in the College of Letters and Sciences. The
increasing scarcity and contingency of such resources make it difficult to use
the funds that are available for their intended purpose—a sustained focus on
coursework, research, or dissertation writing. For example, while university
fellowships are designed to reduce teaching loads in order to facilitate
progress through the degree program, the uncertain fiscal climate prompts
students to conserve stipends for future academic years rather than reduce
their work hours in currently held positions. Fellowship guidelines require
students to limit the number of work hours per week for on or off campus
positions, which may result in a loss of earnings or position if the student ac-
cepts the fellowship. It may not be possible to risk losing employment that
might disappear after the fellowship period is over, which may lead the stu-
dent to decline a fellowship offer. This issue is especially acute for students
from impoverished backgrounds, who have economic dependents, or whose
research requires additional funding to carry out fieldwork and/or laboratory
tests. Minority students in particular may be disproportionately affected by
financial instability in higher education, which may result in fewer com-
pleted degrees in many academic fields (Aud 2010; Jaschik 2014; Nealy 2009;
Sowell et al. 2016). For anthropology, this loss is particularly galling as our
discipline is meant to explore the variety of humanity and include diverse
perspectives.
   Furthermore, funding opportunities are more than sources of income.
Cuts to work study programs or research assistantships, for example, nega-
tively impact the ability for graduate students to work with university faculty
to hone the kinds of skills needed to pursue careers in or outside of the acad-
emy. Moreover, in some instances within the UW System, faculty have cho-
sen to relocate to universities outside of Wisconsin in pursuit of stable eco-
nomic environments and opportunities for their graduate students (Beckman
2016; Magnus 2016; Rocha 2016; Schneider 2016). These compounded issues
result in less original research conducted as well as the loss of potential advi-
sors, committee members, and mentors. As such, graduate students may find
themselves unable to effectively assemble a committee to support their
projects, or worry that they will have to face this outcome were they to enroll
in a university system in crisis.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 69-75
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   Of further concern to graduate students is the potential loss of UWM’s
Carnegie Classification as an R1 (top tier) research institution, a conse-
quence that would be directly linked to the diminished ability for innovative
original research to be conducted and completed, including work by graduate
students. The administration has proudly touted the R1 mantle (Herzog
2016a; Swanson 2016; Walz-Chojnacki 2016), and completed research disser-
tations were an integral component to UWM being awarded this prestigious
status. However, the reduction in funding and available research and teach-
ing assistantships in the College of Letters and Science hinders the effective-
ness of departments, the working conditions for graduate students conduct-
ing research, and the ability for students and faculty to engage across the
university and surrounding communities in Milwaukee. The prioritization of
perceived economic worth and efficiency over UWM mission of research and
access (UW-Milwaukee 2017), devalues higher education experiences for
graduate students in the UW System. It also undermines the goals of the
Wisconsin Idea, a cornerstone of education in our state (Heatherington
2016), which holds that the university is for the benefit of all Wisconsin citi-
zens (McCarthy 1912) and aims «to extend the boundaries of the university
to the boundaries of the state» (Fleisher 2015).
   Our growing awareness of the negative impacts the neoliberal model is
having on our graduate student experiences led us to seek out a means by
which to gain better insight into the inner workings of this approach at UWM
and identify methods by which these impacts can be combatted. This aim ul-
timately led us to become members of UWM’s recently reconstituted chapter
(2015) of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Com-
prised of academic staff, faculty, and graduate students, the AAUP is a pro-
fessional academic organization standing for «academic freedom, shared
governance, institutional independence, and economic security for all those
employed in teaching, research, and academic support» (UWM AAUP 2017a).
The UWM AAUP promotes and defends «higher education as a fundamental
human right to which freedom of inquiry and expression are integral», and in
particular, the defense of the «mission of UWM to provide democratic access
to a first-class, Research 1 university to all of Wisconsin» (Buff 2016a).
   In striving towards these values and engaging with the UWM and broader
UW System administrations as well as the state legislature, UWM AAUP has
become adept at recognizing the interconnected manner in which attacks on
public education appear across various arenas of the UWM as well as across
the university system. This awareness has aided the UWM AAUP chapter in
identifying, documenting, and disseminating knowledge of the specific qual-

                                                 2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 69-75
72                                              TRACEY HEATHERINGTON, FILIPPO M. ZERILLI (EDS)


itative ways this damage has unfolded and how fiscal austerity continues to
exacerbate these effects (Buff 2015b). Our participation in AAUP has allowed
us to bring graduate student concerns to the forefront of conversations
within the organization and better gauge the long-term impacts of further
endeavors the university administrations and the state legislature seek to
implement. Over the past two years the UWM AAUP has also identified other
organizations and populations, both within the university and the larger Mil-
waukee community, that share in the commitment to protecting public edu-
cation and the problem of doing so in a state that continues to devalue it. Ac-
cordingly, the UWM AAUP has worked to build solidarity amongst these bod-
ies on a number of issues, most frequently in the development of strategies
that aim to protect and promote public education from «K-PhD» (kinder-
garten through the doctoral degree) (UWM AAUP 2017b; Buff 2016b). UWM
AAUP stands against the recurring propositions of tuitions hikes for stu-
dents, which would make higher education impossible for more and more
students in Wisconsin, particularly some of the urban population of Milwau-
kee with school districts containing high rates of poverty (Anderson 2016;
Buff 2015a). The organization collaborated with Milwaukee Teachers Educa-
tion Association (MTEA) to protest the state legislature’s law (Opportunity
Schools Partnership Program) which privatized Milwaukee Public Schools,
making underperforming institutions answerable to private corporations
contracted to manage them rather than local Milwaukee residents (Buff
2015b). As UWM AAUP moves into its third year since its reformulation, the
organization’s efforts continue to expand and build new coalitions that cre-
ate inter-group awareness and support. This ongoing mission to engage with
more potential allies allows us to amplify our voices and raise public aware-
ness of the state of education in Wisconsin (UWM AAUP 2017b). We, as indi-
vidual graduate students and as UWM AAUP members, hope that our collec-
tive efforts will result in long-term strategies that promote the survival and
flourishing of our university and the communities with which we share a
bond and purpose.
   Ultimately, our experiences as graduate students, anthropologists, and
AAUP members at UWM have made it clear to us that the continuing erosion
of public education in Wisconsin has the potential to demolish the essential
funding, skills, and academic support necessary for successful graduate edu-
cation programs. Accordingly, this increases the odds that Wisconsin will
lose current and potential future graduate students unable or unwilling to
attempt or complete degrees in an increasingly unstable environment. Such


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an outcome is especially likely for disciplines like anthropology, whose goals
do not easily fit models of economic profit, and consequently are more likely
to be targeted by state cuts. Consequently, we have come to view our contin-
ued cognizance of and active engagement with the political and social forces
seeking to shape public education as vital components of what it means to be
professional scholars and anthropologists. Only through the normalization
of these undertakings within academia can we hope to ensure the survival of
higher education as a force for intellectual inquiry and public good.

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