by Rod Machen
Far from being staid institutions, unchanging as the decades pass, universities are instead caught in the middle of a fight, one with huge ramifications for the way they operate and, as far as the new documentary Starving the Beast is concerned, dire consequences for the nation as a whole.
The proposition: There exists a concerted political effort to radically change the way public universities operate that would in effect make them run in the fashion of a business selling a product, and one of the major ways this is being accomplished is by slashing funding at the state level.
In this argument, the film has surely taken a side. There are good guys and bad guys, though the latter are presented forthrightly, with a full exposition of their views. Still, Starving the Beast is an opinionated call to action that will resonate with anyone concerned about the state of higher education in this country.
The two flagship institutions in the state of Texas play a prominent role in the telling of this story. Several years ago Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin both dealt with then Governor Rick Perry’s proposed “Seven Solutions,” a set of guidelines formulated by Jeff Sandefer, an Austin-based business school lecturer who made it his mission to bring free-market principles to higher ed.
While the situation at A&M flared up and died down pretty quickly after the faculty balked, the University of Texas was a different matter. Sandefer had taught there, and Perry began to install people of like mind on this issue to the board of regents. Most notorious of these was Wallace Hall, who made it his mission his mission to see such changes through, and that meant dealing with his biggest obstacle, university president Bill Powers.
Hall started requesting thousands of documents via the Freedom of Information Act, and as these things are wont to do, dirt was uncovered, including evidence that unqualified students were being admitted if the right people in power wanted them to be. While this movie is sympathetic to Powers and his fight to keep these forces of change at bay, he eventually left the job, though not forced out like Hall and company would have liked.
Other states had it just as bad. In Wisconsin, tenure was stripped from professors through Governor Scott Walker’s reforms, and in Virginia a president’s ouster was met with large protests that eventually got her reinstated. North Carolina saw its flagship system become embroiled in a political fight that caused the closure of several organizations deemed too activist.
The most engaging character in the film might be James Carville, famed political operative and proud LSU alum. His diatribe against the massive defunding that has occurred (and is occurring) at his alma mater–a speech that took place at a recent graduation ceremony–bookends the work.
The production value of Starving the Beast is top notch, and director Steve Mims has created a beautiful film that will certainly highlight this issue for the audience. Whether or not it makes any difference in this fight will be left to history. Maybe some day, it’ll be taught at a university.