Description
Book SynopsisPublic research universities were previously able to provide excellent education to white families thanks to healthy government funding. However, that funding has all but dried up in recent decades as historically underrepresented students have gained greater access, and now less prestigious public universities face major economic challenges. In Broke, Laura T. Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen examine virtually all aspects of campus life to show how the new economic order in public universities, particularly at two campuses in the renowned University of California system, affects students. For most of the twentieth century, they show, less affluent families of color paid with their taxes for wealthy white students to attend universities where their own offspring were not welcome. That changed as a subset of public research universities, some quite old, opted for a new approach, making racially and economically marginalized youth the lifeblood of the university. These new universities, howev
Trade Review"In a crowded field of studies on higher education, Broke distinguishes itself by presenting a truly unique, multifaceted, and critical portrait of the 'new university' as a racial project. Hamilton and Nielsen convincingly demonstrate how processes of 'postsecondary racial neoliberalism' concentrate underrepresented students of color in the least resourced public universities. In these institutional settings, diversity policies and practices are shaped not by only colorblind ideology, but austerity as well."--Michael Omi and Howard Winant, coauthors of Racial Formation in the United States "Broke has the makings of a classic for the sociology of higher education, race, and class stratification. Hamilton and Nielsen document the evolution of the 'new university' in race- and class-stratified society during what they coin as the 'postsecondary racial neoliberal' era. Bolstered by strong empirical analyses and captivating, incisive writing, this book draws the reader in and beckons us to shatter both the realities and ironies of segregated university education as conduits of economic mobility in a wealthy society." --Prudence L. Carter, author of Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture, and Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools
Table of ContentsIntroduction
The Changing Face of the UC 1. Battle with the Rankings
2. P3 Paradise
3. Running Political Cover
Responses to Underfunding 4. Austerity Administration
5. Tolerable Suboptimization
Dealing in Diversity 6. Student Labor and Centers of Support
with Veronica Lerma 7. Marketing Diversity
Breaking the Cycle Acknowledgments
Methodological Appendix: On Being White and Studying Race
Notes
References
Index
