Berkeley's Betrayal - Public Sociology @ Berkeley - University of ...

now mixed up with making money.” Bob believes the “university should be an experimentallaboratory for great things,” and that “the idea of the university is to discover truth, report it andmake society better.” But, instead of doing scientific research for the benefit of knowledge andsociety, “the university gears its scientific research to the needs of companies.” Science atBerkeley “is saleable.”Jerry, a custodian, has an equally cynical attitude about the university and its purpose. Hedescribes the university’ mission as giving “as many yuppie kids as possible a piece of paper…All they care about is their image staying high profile.” Furthermore, “their public relationsdepartment is probably more important than any academic department in the whole institution.They care about their image, their ranking.”Kim, a student affairs officer, echoes the same sentiment: “They will pretty much do anythingfor money now,” she says. “The question is for how much? Would they do it for a hundredthousand? Would they wait until they got a million? When will we get to the point where we saywe won’t be bought?” Given this development, she’s “trying to get out of the habit of sayingthat we’re a world class university, or saying that we are among the best public universities in theworld, because you cannot be that if you do not take care of the people who work here…If youdo not take care of human beings you cannot be a world-class anything.”28