Out d’Coup LIVE | Dana Morrison and Eleni Schirmer on the Other University Debt

On tonight’s show, I welcome Dana Morrison and Eleni Schirmer to the show to talk about that Other debt crisis in American colleges and universities. You’ve probably heard about the crisis in student debt that is crushing a whole generation of graduates from American colleges and universities. However, the crushing debt held by colleges and universities threatens to crush American higher education - especially American public higher education - across the county. As we’ll get into, that debt crisis stems from state legislature walking away from funding state universities on the one hand, and university presidents going on spending sprees to erect shiny luxury dorms, state-of-the-art gyms, and fancy amenities in a full-on, neoliberal approach to attracting students. 

Dr. Dana Morrison, is an Assistant Professor at West Chester University’s Department of Educational Foundations & Policy Studies, and an active member of APSCUF (PASSHE faculty union) and the Public Higher Education Workers (PHEW) Network. 

Eleni Schirmer is a faculty associate at UW-Madison in Educational Policy Studies, where she researches and teaches about labor movements, social movements and the political economy of education. She is writing a political biography of Wisconsin's largest teachers' union, and its unsteady path towards social justice unionism. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Boston Review and elsewhere.