The Canadian National Newspaper: Canadian University Students for sale

Corporate presence at Dalhousie has become so ubiquitous that it’s impossible to question its existence. Auditoriums named after banks and ads in the washrooms are commonplace. Banks and car companies are often given privileged space while fast food chains are students’ only food options near campus. Perhaps most significantly, the research being conducted at our universities and taught in our classrooms is increasingly subject to corporate influence. Although this situation has become the norm, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Some students are mobilizing to take back their universities from corporate control. An International Day of Action Against the Commercialization of Education on Nov. 5 presented one opportunity for students to make this demand in solidarity with those across the globe. At least 17 countries participated in the day of action. At Dal, Students Mobilizing for Action on Campus (SMAC), a group of which I am a member, demonstrated to teach students about the impact of corporatization on our education system. This is part of the group’s mission to challenge not only corporatization on campus, but the anti-democratic governance structures that make it possible.

Corporate presence is often justified to students as the only way of raising funds for the university. Without corporate sponsorship, we are told, tuition fees would rise even higher. But the real problem is the declining government budget for education, which leaves our universities vulnerable to corporate infiltration in the de facto privatization of our schools. Questioning corporate presence at Dal also means challenging the governments that make it possible.

On most university campuses, student unions fight administrations to prevent corporate takeover while they fight for lower tuition fees. Dal’s Student Union Building, however, is filled with corporate advertisers and vendors, and the Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) has its own corporate sponsorship agreements.

These agreements can interfere with the ability of the student body to make decisions. Students who want to ban bottled water on campus for environmental reasons are unable to do so because of an exclusivity deal with Pepsi involving the administration as well as the DSU. The DSU’s own contract with food services provider Sodexho, separate from the administration’s exclusivity deal with Aramark, prevents students from managing their own food services. It is interesting to note that the university has refused to provide students with the details of these contracts, so students have no way of knowing how much these private sector partnerships really cost.

In such a corporate dominated environment, dissent interferes with profit, so it’s often neither encouraged nor tolerated. DSU rules prevent student societies from disrupting activities on campus. Staging a protest could result in de-ratification, so societies keep their mouths shut and comply.

One has to wonder how an institution supposedly dedicated to promoting critical thought can function without dissent. When combined with the corporate funding of research, this represents a disturbing trend. Students must step up to challenge dependence on corporate money to prevent the further deterioration of our education system. Education should not be a for-profit endeavour.

Jane Kirby is completing her masters in international development studies at Dalhousie University.

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