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The administration considers our demand that #NoOneGetsFired at Marquette University unreasonable. But we find it ironic that an administration married to stale neoliberal platitudes would consider us naïve. A brief example.
On September 16, the university requested zoning clearance on a number of its properties east of campus. This land had been bought to house a $120 m Human Performance Center, but Aurora Health pulled out of the partnership, and now the land is vacant. https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/real-estate/commercial/2020/09/16/marquette-seeks-mixed-use-zoning-downtown-milwaukee-project-site/5816427002/
Marquette attempted to save face by building its own $24 million Athletic and Human Performance Center closer to campus. This building is notorious on campus for being largely empty and unused. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2019/04/24/marquette-unveils-new-24-million-athletic-research-facility/3541059002/
Marquette spent at least $15 m on the land to house the initial project, and $24 m on the campus facility. Was this funded by donations? Who knows? They've never been willing to tell us. $39m and the land is still vacant. https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2015/08/07/marquette-university-buys-additional-land-for.html
But this isn’t the only failed investment on the part of Marquette University. Former Executive Vice President of Operations Dave Lawlor was rumored to have been pushed out because his failed “M12” investment scheme blew a hole in Marquette’s budget. https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2018/10/25/dave-lawlor-resigns-from-marquette-university.html
It is clear that the University has been scuffling since this moment, and yet the people who enabled Lawlor have not been held accountable. All mention of M12 has been scrubbed from Marquette’s website.
Now Marquette wants to invest in a mixed use facility on their vacant lots. “We often have conversations with outside entities that are interested in seeking synergistic, mission-aligned opportunities to develop the property.”
Will this gambit pay off? Who knows? But lets admit that the Lovell administration’s record ain’t great.
What’s clear, however, is that the University keeps chasing the neo-liberal dream of a private-sector solution to the provision of public goods, and they continue to get their pants pulled down.
Increasingly it is clear that the University is being held accountable to its investment portfolio, and not vice versa.
In an interview the Provost was asked about alternatives to cutting faculty. He responded “We don’t want to build a university on the hope that students will come.” It would seem the university has more important ventures in mind than educating students. https://marquettewire.org/4038625/news/university-to-face-possible-cuts-due-to-budget-shortfalls/
The admin repeatedly falls prey to get rich quick schemes, and is now taking the losses out of educational operations. It’s why we’ve been referring to the school as a "holding company with a tuition revenue stream." It’s not rhetoric, it really does appear to be the case.
Meanwhile, the admin refuses to consider using the endowment to make up for its own failures. When asked about it, President Lovell has stated that the money is earmarked for other projects. Excuse us if we’re less than excited about President Lovell’s next grand scheme.
Which is why the charge of naivete is so hilarious. The Board of Trustees continues to empower a man who has done nothing but fail the university, and now we’re all going to suffer for their complicity. We’re not naïve, WE HAVE A DIFFERENT VISION
1. What if instead of firing 450 people in the middle of an economic catastrophe we used the endowment to make up for losses associated with an unprecedented global pandemic?
The CARES Act authorized the Fed to spend $4.5 trillion to back the bad corporate debt that was tanking the stock market in March. This promise allowed the stock market to rebound even as the underlying productive economy tanked and job losses mounted. https://theintercept.com/2020/05/27/federal-reserve-corporate-debt-coronavirus/
The endowment is the only part of Marquette University that got bailed out, and it is only just that it be used to maintain jobs and avoid suffering.
2. What if instead of worrying about a demographic cliff, Marquette changed its enrollment practices to bring in more Latinx and Black students looking for a quality education?
It's only the number of white kids that is declining. Instead we’ve chosen to racialize the crisis, assuming that these students couldn’t possibly make up our enrollment numbers.
The University has already pulled back on a promise to hire more faculty of color and has cancelled three race, indigenous and ethnic studies job searches. In the same week the University also pulled back from a prior promise to invest in becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution.
3. What if instead of rolling the dice on real estate deals and investment strategies, the University focused on building itself around its reputation for liberal arts excellence, and the brilliance and teaching acumen of its incredible faculty?
We were recently rated #18 in teaching among national universities, and a liberal arts Jesuit is our greatest calling card.
Instead of cutting Arts & Sciences by 25% how about we invest more and meet employers express demand for more liberal arts graduates. https://hbr.org/2019/09/yes-employers-do-value-liberal-arts-degrees
In this time of social, economic and political crisis, the ability to contextualize and understand our moment is actually more at a premium than specific skills. We need the liberal arts.
TL;DR We have a different vision for this university, one that focuses on the people that make it great.
And we’ve only begun to fight for it.
