Croissant's "Can this Campus be Bought?"

Jennifer Croissant’s essay “Can This Campus be Bought?” discusses the complex and often troubling relationship between universities and corporate sponsors. One of Croissant’s strongest points comes at the end of her essay where she suggests that large corporate donations often have the effect of convincing legislators that state funding for education is no longer necessary (p. 88). If this is the case, then these donations are creating a sense of dependency on the universities that could become very problematic in the long term. In addition to molding students into consumers and potentially influencing the direction of certain studies (especially those using certain technology), these vendor relationships are also investing in a self-sustaining relationship that will create even more dependency on commercialization in the future. I think that Croissant makes a very strong – and valid – argument, but I think that she underestimates the influence that the educators within a university actually have. If the professors still retain autonomy over their classrooms then they can simultaneously reap the benefits of the corporate sponsorship while also teaching about the need to be aware of the negative effects of sponsorship. I think that the University of Oregon walks this line very well. Even though Nike is a very large sponsor and vendor of the university, I have been exposed to controversies surrounding Nike’s manufacturing policies in multiple classes. If an academic institution can focus on creating the best minds it within its students, then hopefully those students will be able to see through the corporate sponsors and will become citizens, not consumers.