Before summer break begins, my mechanical engineering teammate friends Paola, Adeline and I were having a wine night after exams. We started talking about why we decided to come to Michigan. For in-state kids, it's usually pretty obvious why they would come to Michigan, rather cheap investment for a good education and near home, why not, right? As for out-of-state kids, I always wonder why they would wanna come here, especially half-ironically making fun of Californians who came here to purely suffer. Adeline is an international student from Indonesia. Her parents are one of those international-experienced parents who want to send their kids in the diaspora for a good education, which I totally understand. I've seen a lot of parents in Hong Kong who are rather more privileged do that, so good for her. Paola is from Florida, so basically I ask her the same thing as I do with Californians, "why would you want to come here to suffer?"
Her answer was complicated and rather personal.
Paola is a really smart person, and she has a really clear vision of what she wants to do in life and how she wants to accomplish things. She told us that she knew she wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer since 4th grade, so you know she is one of those people who was meant to be successful and radiates the success energy. She knows a lot of hands-on knowledge in engineering that schools don't teach, probably from all her high school intensive STEM studies.
My initial assumption is that: of course, Umich engineering is a pretty top-ranked school. It makes sense for people to come here for it.
She said (along the lines of): no. University rankings technically mean nothing to me. In fact, Umich is just the same as any other school for academics. You are paying to learn the same exact material as other universities.
She is absolutely right. When we look at course equivalency between Umich and other colleges, courses and the material taught are very similar, no matter what major you are in."it's a good school," everyone says. But what makes it a good school? "All the people here are super smart" Ok, but why do all the smartest people want to come here?
It is the research, the resources, and the name itself that makes up for its ranking and its hype. To me, I think it's just another systemic capitalist institution. This school is nothing more than a rich corporate school, especially in the business and engineering department where it's thriving the most. And on top of that it is also a racist, classist school. It always has been. Funny enough, I made a post calling out Mark Schlissel for his racist bullshit two years ago (we been knew):
Here is where we all want to say, "let's unpack this" like the usual fashion. And disclaimer, these research are surface-level enough that a lot of people might know already. With that being said, who knows how much more capitalist and racist this university truly is.
First of all, 46% students who go here are from a family that makes $100k above:
"The median family income of a student from Michigan is $154,000, and 66% come from the top 20 percent. About 1.5% of students at Michigan came from a poor family but became a rich adult." - from New York Times.
This is not an elite school thing. Many other elite schools that are even higher ranked than Umich barely has that many people who comes from a family that makes $100k above.
Also, UMich endowment is "$11.9 billion, $1 billion more than a year ago" - University Records 2018. This was from a year ago, so who even knows how much richer Umich have gotten over another year! This is even more than the endowment of all the University of California (UC system) combined at $11.01 billion from 2018. Let that sink in.
Umich also has have university exchange programs and economic ties with transnational Chinese institution and corporations. A lot of these organizations, programs and departments set in place are to not only support Chinese imperialism but to also act as Chinese propaganda/surveillance tool, such as the Confucius Institute, China Initiatives in Ross program, CSSA, MCBC. Some of these organizations are also directly funded by the PRC/CPC government itself. Same thing goes to Israeli/pro-Zionist surveillance and sponsorship set in place to promote "academic freedom and diversity of thought and global perspective" kind of bullshit. The university uses money that it exploits from colonial power's oppression on marginalized community to build their economic credibility, to advance programs, and to expand their presents to colonial forces. Resources from these colonial power are our biggest, most promoted option as students to pursue in order for us to succeed. Even if you don't participate in colonial resources, you are still forced to use resources from these colonial forces, as most of the endowment come from corporations that invest in colonial power anyway. It ignores the massive voices concerning UM Divest. Even after CSG passing UM Divest, the University stated that divesting from companies with Israeli ties would harm the resources in academia at UM. This goes to show that the university itself is nothing but a neo-colonial force itself.
You might say, "there is definitely trade-offs between quality of education and exploitation from colonial forces. Many universities besides UM do it too." Ok, let's pretend like we are liberals and say it's okay to exploit marginalized communities to build a capitalist system because everyone else does it. But we haven't even gotten into the fact that the University ignores the voices of Palestinian students and marginalized communities on campus. Or even worse, allowing white supremacists and people from IDF to speak on campus in the name of "free speech" and "diversity of thought," being complicit (as always) when Palestinians are getting blacklisted from Canary Mission, lessening the admission promotions in inner-cities schools in lower-income Michigan towns, and more. Do we really think students from marginalized communities who voice concerns about being drained form all the bullshit in this university are just whining because school is hard? Or, is it a true reflection of all the shit ass things this university have in place to fuck us up extra on top of academics? Oh, by the way, can we also talk about the fact that Ross professors are getting paid in the $400k-$600k range annually and it's probably not a coincidence along with all the things I just said?
So, back to the ranking. As a public university with this many corporate ties and resources in place, it becomes pretty obvious as to how it maintains its ranking up high. Again, a lot of material taught in undergrad classes are pretty similar to other lower-ranked universities. The university's high rank is based on its reputation and massive resources it has, which they are super selective to only providing the most to programs that can advance their corporate ties anyway. Here we are, continually only admitting rich students and contributing to the education inequality that we are all super concerned about. But great! At least when I go to Career Fair, I'm guaranteed to get to talk to all the biggest corporates to *maybe* secure a good job, right?
Her answer was complicated and rather personal.
Paola is a really smart person, and she has a really clear vision of what she wants to do in life and how she wants to accomplish things. She told us that she knew she wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer since 4th grade, so you know she is one of those people who was meant to be successful and radiates the success energy. She knows a lot of hands-on knowledge in engineering that schools don't teach, probably from all her high school intensive STEM studies.
My initial assumption is that: of course, Umich engineering is a pretty top-ranked school. It makes sense for people to come here for it.
She said (along the lines of): no. University rankings technically mean nothing to me. In fact, Umich is just the same as any other school for academics. You are paying to learn the same exact material as other universities.
She is absolutely right. When we look at course equivalency between Umich and other colleges, courses and the material taught are very similar, no matter what major you are in."it's a good school," everyone says. But what makes it a good school? "All the people here are super smart" Ok, but why do all the smartest people want to come here?
It is the research, the resources, and the name itself that makes up for its ranking and its hype. To me, I think it's just another systemic capitalist institution. This school is nothing more than a rich corporate school, especially in the business and engineering department where it's thriving the most. And on top of that it is also a racist, classist school. It always has been. Funny enough, I made a post calling out Mark Schlissel for his racist bullshit two years ago (we been knew):
First of all, 46% students who go here are from a family that makes $100k above:
"The median family income of a student from Michigan is $154,000, and 66% come from the top 20 percent. About 1.5% of students at Michigan came from a poor family but became a rich adult." - from New York Times.
This is not an elite school thing. Many other elite schools that are even higher ranked than Umich barely has that many people who comes from a family that makes $100k above.
Also, UMich endowment is "$11.9 billion, $1 billion more than a year ago" - University Records 2018. This was from a year ago, so who even knows how much richer Umich have gotten over another year! This is even more than the endowment of all the University of California (UC system) combined at $11.01 billion from 2018. Let that sink in.
Umich also has have university exchange programs and economic ties with transnational Chinese institution and corporations. A lot of these organizations, programs and departments set in place are to not only support Chinese imperialism but to also act as Chinese propaganda/surveillance tool, such as the Confucius Institute, China Initiatives in Ross program, CSSA, MCBC. Some of these organizations are also directly funded by the PRC/CPC government itself. Same thing goes to Israeli/pro-Zionist surveillance and sponsorship set in place to promote "academic freedom and diversity of thought and global perspective" kind of bullshit. The university uses money that it exploits from colonial power's oppression on marginalized community to build their economic credibility, to advance programs, and to expand their presents to colonial forces. Resources from these colonial power are our biggest, most promoted option as students to pursue in order for us to succeed. Even if you don't participate in colonial resources, you are still forced to use resources from these colonial forces, as most of the endowment come from corporations that invest in colonial power anyway. It ignores the massive voices concerning UM Divest. Even after CSG passing UM Divest, the University stated that divesting from companies with Israeli ties would harm the resources in academia at UM. This goes to show that the university itself is nothing but a neo-colonial force itself.
You might say, "there is definitely trade-offs between quality of education and exploitation from colonial forces. Many universities besides UM do it too." Ok, let's pretend like we are liberals and say it's okay to exploit marginalized communities to build a capitalist system because everyone else does it. But we haven't even gotten into the fact that the University ignores the voices of Palestinian students and marginalized communities on campus. Or even worse, allowing white supremacists and people from IDF to speak on campus in the name of "free speech" and "diversity of thought," being complicit (as always) when Palestinians are getting blacklisted from Canary Mission, lessening the admission promotions in inner-cities schools in lower-income Michigan towns, and more. Do we really think students from marginalized communities who voice concerns about being drained form all the bullshit in this university are just whining because school is hard? Or, is it a true reflection of all the shit ass things this university have in place to fuck us up extra on top of academics? Oh, by the way, can we also talk about the fact that Ross professors are getting paid in the $400k-$600k range annually and it's probably not a coincidence along with all the things I just said?
So, back to the ranking. As a public university with this many corporate ties and resources in place, it becomes pretty obvious as to how it maintains its ranking up high. Again, a lot of material taught in undergrad classes are pretty similar to other lower-ranked universities. The university's high rank is based on its reputation and massive resources it has, which they are super selective to only providing the most to programs that can advance their corporate ties anyway. Here we are, continually only admitting rich students and contributing to the education inequality that we are all super concerned about. But great! At least when I go to Career Fair, I'm guaranteed to get to talk to all the biggest corporates to *maybe* secure a good job, right?
留言
發佈留言