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An open reading-research group on the topic of "Public Higher Education at the Crossroads" began meeting this week and will continue every week through the winter quarter.

Sociology professor John Hall and art history professor Blake Stimson are the organizers.

The program is open to people from all walks of university life: students (who can arrange for credit), faculty, administrators and other staff.

The first meeting took place Jan. 13, and subsequent sessions are scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 27, Feb. 10 and 24, and March 10, all Wednesdays. The meeting place is 203 Art Building.

The first week's readings, listed by author:

• Mark G. Yudof — “Is the Public University Dead?”

• Yudof — “The Purgatory of the Public University”

• Yudof — “Higher Tuitions: Harbinger of a Hybrid University?”

• Yudof — “Are University Systems a Good Idea?”

• George Lakoff — “Privatization is The Issue”

• T.J. Clark — Sept. 24 speech

• Judith Butler — “Save California’s Universities”

For the week of Jan. 25:

• Clark Kerr — The Uses of the University, fifth edition

For the week of Feb. 8:

• Gaye Tuchman — Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University, and-or Jennifer Washburn — University Inc: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education

For the week of Feb. 22:

• Christopher Newfield — Unmaking the Public University: The 40-Year Assault on the Middle Class

For the week of March 8:

Readings on the future of higher education, to be determined, perhaps including the following:

• Andrew Ross — “The Mental Labor Problem”

• Ross — “The Rise of the Global University”

• Nick Dyer-Witheford — “Cognitive Capitalism and the Contested Campus”

A flier describes the readings listed above as a working plan, and asks for suggestions of other readings.

Students are welcome to enroll for credit in either Sociology 298 or Cultural Studies 298: two units for reading and discussion only, or four units with additional
reading and a term paper.

For PDFs of the first week’s readings, send an e-mail to Professor Hall, jrhall@ucdavis.edu; or Professor Stimson, bstimson@ucdavis.edu.