CSUF 1970

"My oldest, closest friend is a guy who came to the UnitedStates from Latvia when he was fifteen, fleeing from Hitler.

He escaped to New York with his parents and went to George WashingtonHigh School, which inthose days at least was theschool for bright Jewishkids in New York City.

And he once toldme that the first thing that struck him about American schoolswas the fact that if he got a "C" in acourse, nobodycared, but if hewent to schoolthree minuteslate he was sent to the principal'soffice -and that generalized.

He realized that what it meant is, what's valuedhere is the ability to work on an assembly line, evenif it's an

intellectual assembly line.

Theimportant thing is to beable to obey orders, andto do what you're told,and to be where you'resupposed to be. Thevalues are, you're going tobe a factory workersomewhere -maybe they

Well, that's pretty much what theschools are like, I think: theyreward discipline and obedience,and they punish independence of mind. If you happen to be a littleinnovative, or maybe you forgot tocome to school one day because youwere reading a book or something, that's atragedy, that's a crime -because you're not supposed to think, you're supposed to obey,and just proceed through the material inwhatever way they require." -Understanding Power, by Noam Chomsky

call it a university -but you're going to be following somebody else's orders,and just doing your work in some prescribed way. And what matters isdiscipline, not figuring things out for yourself, or understanding things that interest you -those are kind of marginal: just make sure you meet therequirements of a factory.

Daily Titan1970 CSUF

Education is not a Business

To think of education as a business is to stifle the creative ideal of highereducation and the university itself. The deployment of budget cuts made bythe administration here at Cal State Fullerton are not just to manage financesin order to adjust to the crisis of the economic downfall or the overall statebudget. This crisis is now being used to reinvent higher education and toserve corporate needs. This “crisis” is being used as an excuse by theadministration to cut expenses where “needed,” especially inf Humanities andSocial Sciences.Why is it that when we have such a crisis of funds the Kinesiology department can still add a whole new major? Why is it that when we have such a crisis theBusiness Department has already hired two associate deans, but theHumanities and Social Sciences College is left without an associate dean?The underlying question behind this budget crisis is who is going to surviveit?Which college offers the majority of general education classes? Humanitiesand Social Sciences. Which college has the most major transfers? Humanitiesand Social Sciences. But which department is the recipient of 35% of theoverall budget cut at Cal State Fullerton? Humanities and Social Sciences.And why is this happening to Humanities and Social Sciences?Is it because Humanities and Social Sciences teach students to be creativeindividuals? Is it because Humanities and Social Sciences teach students to becritical analytical thinkers that ask questions about the world around them?Or is it because Humanities serves no purpose in the agenda of capitalistic,bureaucratic corporations?I think it is all of the above.We need to ask these critical questions at this time, and not just accept this“crisis” as an excuse to cut costs from the heart of education.Keep classes open, keep education accessible for all and keep education out of the pockets of corporations and capitalists.The budget crisis is not just a state issue; it is a local issue.