Marketing science, marketing ourselves

Academe, Sep/Oct 2003 by Montgomery, David C

We may decide that the creature comforts and access to high places gained by selling the university's traditional capabilities are worth it. But we should not delude ourselves that the final price will not be much higher than has been paid thus far when the bill is presented. When the sole value of anything we do is measurable only in dollars, we will be just like everybody else, scrambling in the economy for what they scramble for and having no more credibility than they do when we step up to sell ourselves to the rest of society.

It is natural to look for the reasons behind the sudden pressure to "marketize" academia. Is there a difference between that pressure and corresponding efforts to privatize, say, drinking water management, Medicare, elementary education, or news broadcasting? Maybe not. When a society lets market values take over as its guide to life, perhaps its leaders feel threatened by any remaining institution that does not concede that the market has the answers to all questions of resource apportionment.

If that is what is occurring, should we be any more exercised about what is happening to academia than to any other area of social activity? For us, the answer would seem to be yes. Yes, because higher education is something we know about and for which we are responsible. We may evade responsibility for the state of drinking water by saying that we do not know enough details to feel confident in our judgment about drinking-water supply mechanisms. But we do know about research and education, and we are responsible for them, if anyone is. We have the standing and a special obligation to "just say no" to further marketization of academia, if anyone can. Sometimes, whole campaigns can be greatly influenced by what happens in local theaters.

David Montgomery is A. Kelvin Smith

Professor of Physics at Dartmouth College.