"Neoliberalism and the Academic-Industrial Complex"

By Jason Del Gandio

Truthout - Thursday, 12 August 2010

A recently published New York Times article entitled "The Academic-Industrial Complex" (July 31, 2010) outlines the growing trend of university presidents and other senior university officials serving on corporate boards. As author Graham Bowley states:

According to a 2008 survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, presidents from 19 of the top 40 research universities with the largest operating budgets sat on at least one company board. The trend is more widespread among public universities, but the private ones are catching up: the American Council on Education says that from 2001 to 2006, the proportion of presidents from all doctorate-granting institutions sitting on corporate boards rose to 52.1 percent from 47.8 percent at public institutions and to 50.9 percent from 40.6 percent at private ones.[1]

The article brings attention to this growing academic-corporate connection and, on occasion, addresses some important concerns. For example, can university presidents properly fulfill their duties while serving on multiple corporate boards? Are there any conflicts of interests between academic and corporate obligations? And, perhaps most importantly, are students and faculty likely to censor their corporate critiques (of sweatshop labor or financial scandals, for instance) if their president serves the targeted corporation?

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