NEOLIBERALISM Global neoliberalism and education and its consequences

Neoliberalism, Youth, and the Leasing of Higher Education 39their intellectual status and public roles. One example can be found in thehiring of Michael Crow as the president of Arizona State University (ASU)in 2002. Crow, a former vice provost at Columbia University and head ofIn-Q-Tel Inc., a nonprofit venture capital arm of the Central IntelligenceAgency, has attempted with a vengeance to organize ASU along corporatelines. With entrepreneurial types such as Crow now filling the ranks of universitypresidents, it is not surprising that venture capitalists scour collegesand universities in search of big profits to be made through licensing agreements,the control of intellectual property rights, and investing in universityspin-off companies. Deans are likewise often hired from the ranks of thebusiness community and increasingly the intelligence agencies, and evaluatedon the basis of their ability to attract external funding and impose businessmodels of leadership and accountability. As Stanley Aronowitz pointsout in “The new corporate university,” increasingly “leaders of higher educationwear the badge of corporate servants proudly” (2006, p. 32). Andwhy not, when the notion of market-driven education has the full supportof Bush-type Republicans and their corporate allies? Today, scholarshipis measured not by the search for truth, rigor, or its social contributions.On the contrary, it is all too willingly defined in support of market needsjust as funding for university programs is related to the commodificationof ideas and the accumulation of profits. The dean at my former universitynot only viewed education as a depoliticized discourse, he also completelycollapsed the distinction between scholarship and grant-getting by handingout distinguished professorships to academics who secured large grants butdid very little in the way of either making important theoretical contributionsor publishing widely recognized scholarly work. What is missing fromthe space of the corporate university is any perspective suggesting that, atthe very least, university administrators, academics, students, and othersexercise the political, civic, and ethical courage needed to refuse the commercialrewards that would reduce them to becoming simply another brandname, corporate logo, or adjunct to corporate interests.As the university has increasingly corporatized, the collateral damagemounts, especially with regard to students. As the Bush administrationhas increasingly pushed for policies that furthered the ongoing corporatizationof higher education, students have paid a heavy price. As the Bushadministration has cut student aid, plundered public services, and pushedstates to the brink of financial disaster, higher education increasingly hasbecome a privilege rather than a right. Many middle- and working-classstudents have either found it financially impossible to enter college or,because of increased costs, have had to drop out. As the Chronicle ofHigher Education has reported, young people from poor and disadvantagedfamilies have faced even more difficult hurdles in trying to attaina college education because the Bush administration decided to cut PellGrants, the nation’s largest federal student aid program. In addition,because Congress changed the federal needs-analysis formula, more than