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In early January, the Executive of the Association of Academic Staff at the University of Alberta (AASUA) met, at her request, with the President of the University of Alberta, Indira Samarasekera.

At the meeting, the Executive heard (amongst other things) that the President does not understand the criticism that she has been receiving about the University’s office of Advancement. We were informed that research has proven that for each person hired to do the work of pursuing philanthropic investment in a university “you bring in a million dollars.” Harvard and Stanford have 1,000 people each doing this work. That’s a billion dollars! We were told. The President insisted that “we need a collective commitment” to Advancement so that we may “up our game.”

The logic is clear enough. If the Government of Alberta won’t provide the University with the funding that it needs to flourish, we must turn elsewhere for the money. Around the University this is described in terms of our achieving our independence from the Government. What gets ignored in such discussions: the fact that the University of Alberta is a public institution.

Philanthropic giving may be regarded as a wonderful thing. Amongst other things, we might argue, it facilitates a redistribution of wealth from the economically privileged, or those who have had great financial success in their careers, to our social institutions. In a capitalist society in which social inequities are growing at an ever-escalating pace, such giving may play a role in mitigating some of the social depredations being produced by right-wing governments around the world as they cut the public sector and social services. Philanthropic giving plays a role, in short, in keeping our society humane. 

However, public universities must be publicly funded in order to maintain their independence from private industry or private interests. If the University of Alberta were to receive its philanthropic gifts on top of base funding from the Government that already guaranteed its flourishing, our donors’ gifts, where given with no strings attached, might have a chance to play a role of permitting us to diversify our academic programming and our research in unique ways that might truly distinguish us from other institutions. But where they have to substitute for inadequate government funding they risk changing the character of the institution. Our society, democratic, must be shaped not by the select interests of the privileged, but according to the common good. Our universities must also remain publicly funded to maintain their vital connection to the population they serve. This is especially important in a “petro state” such as Alberta. It must be clear that this public university truly belongs to the people of Alberta, and that the research that goes on here is appropriately autonomous from the corporate interests of the natural resource sector. No gates should go up around the University, and no private or corporate interest should be able to wield special influence here. Government funding is intended to be the guarantor of the University’s character as a public institution, serving the public good.

In the face of the Government of Alberta’s unprecedented cuts to the funding of the province’s postsecondary institutions last March, the University’s Central Administration chose to introduce a “voluntary severance” program to get rid of academic staff —

that is, the people who do the research and teaching at the University. And even as precious academic staff who make unique contributions to our research and academic programs are to walk out the door forever on 30 June 2014, more money is being and will be directed to the office of Advancement, created in 2011. […]

As it stands, the funds that go to growing Advancement must come from elsewhere in the Operating Budget, and unless there is some radical restructuring of Central Administration occurring of which the University at large is currently unaware at least a portion of these funds will come from our research and teaching budgets. […]

This commitment to Advancement — which the President urges upon us as a “collective commitment” — ight be a whole lot more justifiable at a public university if it had a necessary counterpart in a commitment to pursuing public investment. Stanford and Harvard are, after all, amongst the world’s top private universities. Of course their offices of “Giving” are well-staffed. Stanford and Harvard do not receive public funding, and make no pretensions to being public institutions. […]

But all Albertans are stakeholders in the University of Alberta. The University is one of Alberta’s public houses. And surely those of us who work at the University all have a strong enough sense of its value to Albertans that we should be fighting for the highest possible contribution of public resources to the University as public good — a contribution Albertans would be far more likely to secure from the Government if they were convinced that the University of Alberta was their university, and were encouraged to participate in it even when they are not students or alumni. 

What we need, in short, are Public Relations — relations through which we draw the public in to what we do, or go out to the public to bring the University to them. […]

One of my immediate colleagues in the Department of English and Film Studies proposes now that we create the “Pop-Up University” — that is, hold events in public, for the public, showcasing what we do for Alberta by doing it with Albertans in locations outside the University’s walls. It’s also easy to imagine how excited the public might be to have us hold, on occasion, Open Labs. Sure, the public can receive news stories about our breakthroughs and our successes, and this is important. But how might we create University experiences for Albertans that draw them into an understanding of why we matter and let them have direct encounters with our work? […]

As it stands, our Deans are in the beleaguered situation of somehow having to generate revenue –which is to say, do their own bit to secure philanthropic funding — when what we need are the resources that let us reach out to Albertans on our own creative terms. If we could Pop Up or Open Out in properly-resourced inventive ways of our own choosing, the academic staff at the University would have a real chance of gaining the support of the People that the Central Administration’s slogan of choice tells us we are supposed to be Uplifting. The development of Advancement can wait until the Government appropriately provides the funds to support it; the nurturing of our relationship with Albertans cannot.

Carolyn Sale is an associate professor of English at the University of Alberta. A longer version of this article originally appeared on her blog, Arts Squared, and is reprinted here with permission.

Image: flickr/Iratz