top of page
Writer's pictureShina Devon

Universities and the Power of Coercion


From the moment I started high school, every adult in my life, from parents to teachers to family friends, asked me where I wanted to go to college. There was never even a question about whether or not I wanted to attend college. This attitude is pervasive in the American middle class: attending university is taken as an absolute good. If you want to have a happy and successful life, you have to go to college. The internet is rife with instagram infographics and author-less propaganda pieces about the wonders of higher education that illustrate this point of view. The University of People website has an article on its website called Top 10 Reasons Why Education is Important stating:


"If you can dream it, you can achieve it. An education is the most powerful weapon you can possibly have, and with it, you can make all of your dreams come true. There are of course certain exceptions, depending on what you’re aiming for, but generally an education will take you as far as you’re willing to go."

Education is so powerfully framed in the US as this positive thing that students choose to engage in. But if that were the case, the dynamics between students and educational institutions would be much different. In the US, money talks and customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance. Restaurants and other customer service oriented businesses show deference to the customer because they want more business. Technically, students are the customer, paying for a service. So why are students so disempowered? Why don’t they have more control about where their tuition goes or what classes they can take? Because if students complain, their seemingly bright futures can be ripped from them.

Universities are invested in the narrative that society has no control over making education compulsory. But it is not necessary to buy into the idea that the only way to determine someone’s value comes from where they went to school. There are so many alternative ways that jobs could come up with to vet qualified candidates instead of requiring a prestigious four year degree. Yet universities have a vested interest in treating the system as unchangeable because the way society gatekeeps desirable jobs creates demand for their degree programs.


In our current society, if you want a certain kind of life, you need a degree. Universities are the tall wall standing in the way of a comfortable life and they control the price that everyone has to pay to get that decent life. This is the unmentioned and unrecognized stick that the universities use to get obedient students. Ugly power dynamics play out all over the country to illustrate this point, with universities withholding support from students who dare to push the boundaries of the education system.


This plays out in more subtle ways as well. Every student has to pass their classes in order to progress in their degree program and in order to pass your classes you have to perform according to the standards of your professors. But what if those standards are unjust and disproportionately disadvantge marginalized communities? Are you empowered to speak up? The professors and administration hold the key to your future; you are forced to comply or you don’t get your piece of paper, so how can students call out injustices in the organization when it means putting your future on the line? “So what if he made a sexist comment”, she thinks, “he wasn’t being malicious right?”


It is time that universities recognize that they are part of the problem. They reinforce and recreate power imbalances while claiming to try to fix them. They disempower their students, coercing them into shutting their mouths, keeping their heads down and putting up with the institution as it is so that students will be able to pass through the societal barrier that comes from not having a college degree.



5 views0 comments

Comentários


bottom of page