[OPINION] The tragedy of the university

The coup de grace of the 18^th Congress to deny the franchise renewal of the largest broadcasting network exhibited a typical sacrificio del intelleto (sacrifice of the intellect). This act is not new because this practice first existed within the walls of the university.

<h1>The idea of the university</h1>

I usually ask this question to my first-year students at our first meeting: “Why are you here? What is your purpose?” Most of them answer that they are here because they want to learn, graduate, and find a job.  This response is the typical answer of university or college students because getting a degree means qualifications for work and getting a passport to a better life.

We can trace back this archetypal answer to the socioeconomic status of the students and the current trends of society. It is true that the university provides the foundation for professional training and produces graduates, as a generator of knowledge. However, due to the neoliberal ethos, universities have not been yielding proficient thinkers in the field but rather workers for utilitarian purposes.

Primarily, the idea is that the university dedicates itself to the pursuit of science and scholarship. Research and teaching seek to contribute to intellectual culture as a way in which truth becomes meaningful and manifested. Its tasks are distinct: the function of research and the transmission of learning and education to culture. Therefore, it intends for the student to participate actively in scholarly study, and from this experience, acquire the intellectual discipline and training which will remain throughout life. The state and society can benefit from the graduates since the university prepares them for careers in public service, which require scientific ability and mental training.

My view of the university is not of an ivory tower but of a critical force in society – a force for change. In contrast, the corruption inside universities weakens its impetus to aspire for excellence and hinders human capital formation.

<h1>Hagiolatric entity and mental malnutrition</h1>

The university is renowned for its standards not only for students but also for its faculty members. These standards seek to elevate the university’s status, as reflected in the number of successful graduates in the field and to maintain the tradition.

However, political affiliations inside the circle can bend measures. For example, the university does not fill administrative positions based on credentials and achievements but instead selects that who is most subservient or ingratiating to the superior. The raison d’être for this is that they can create their own circle and maintain the “Padrino System.” We can wonder why those people employ or promote their kin or even fictive kin to a particular position to ensure power. This hagiolatric entity pleases those people in position in exchange for clout, thus creating a visage of corruption and sacrificing the whole community for the sake of one person’s ambition. It seems to follow, therefore, that “it is not what you know, but who you know.”

Take, for example, the election of a state university or college president. They exclude the faculty from participating in the selection. Only the board of trustees selects the next president. Thus, political powerplay dominates this election. If it is appointed by the same party for the benefit of their career and career advancement, no wonder there is mental malnutrition in decision-making.

<h1>False promise: Fabrication of ideology</h1>

These perverse incentives in academia through the reward system, by doing tons of research and getting them published in a journal to secure a spot for professorial rank, has proven to be a contributor to bad science. Incentivizing research and the phrase “publish or perish” contributes to the exploitation of people. This is one of the reasons why predatory journals and research conferences have mushroomed in the past years.

This kind of system exploited teachers. They became forced to do research to get higher points for ranking, for the higher the rank, the higher the salary grade. Predatory journals and research conferences don’t care about the content and substance of research. They know that the people attending need points, and from that, they take advantage of the situation.

The name of this phenomenon is motivational crowding, and exploiters ride on this kind of system. Financial rewards through incentives is a classic ideology that the university fabricates to prove their competency. This is classic corporatization. It prompts the question: is the point of research to spread the knowledge to others and learn more about the world, or is it for the sake of completion and to be an easy path to promotion? 

Living on the false premise that an avalanche of research publications is equivalent to excellence turns out to accomplish the very opposite. 

<h1>University as a seedbed for authoritarianism</h1>

Institutions today are apt to deteriorate and become distorted. Ideally, the university must select the best in the field to lead. However, in practice, the system favors the second best. This is to maintain the unconscious solidarity for power, prompted by anti-intellectual motivations such as fear of competition and jealousy. This creates a “bozo explosion” in the organization. This is why mental malnutrition occurs – because of illusionary superiority that leads to erroneous thinking and erosion of quality over time. This is the “Dunning Kruger Effect.”

Paradoxically, professors discuss the concept of democracy in class and how we put democracy in practice not just politically but in everyday living. But things are getting out of hand. How can you discuss democracy and the democratic process if the system per se is anti-democratic? Is the university enjoying double standards? Is it just empty talk?

Simultaneously, the rise of unemployment, the implementation of the Anti-Terror Law amid human rights concerns, the upsurge of COVID-19 cases, and the shutdown of the largest broadcasting network must also be the concern of the university as guardians of truth. This lukewarm attitude towards social pathologies can be the reason why the tragedy of the university transgresses society and find its way to the government.

Why does the University of the Philippines continue its battle to defend democracy, and why are other SUCs silent when they hear the clamor of the people who are victims of injustice? It’s because when you speak for the truth and call out the corrupt practices of the government, they will brand your campus as a breeding ground of subversives.

Ostensibly, the university is the place where a person has the freedom to search for truth and to teach truth in defiance of anyone who wishes to curtail this freedom. It is a tragic paradox that the university educates us to be democratic yet obliterates the democratic process.

One student asked me, “Sir, is democracy dying?” I answered, “Maybe we should rephrase your question to: are we killing democracy?” I added that we designed a system that is destroying our democracy, and it starts within the university. – Rappler.com

Sensei M. Adorador is in the faculty of the College of Education at Carlos Hilado Memorial State College, Negros Occidental. He is a member of the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND). For comments and suggestions you can reach him at sensei.adorador@chmsc.edu.ph.