Abstract
This article analyzes the economic and ideological transformations confronting higher education during the Reagan era and their implications for academic independence. It identifies three interrelated developments: the increasing dependence of universities on corporate funding, the widening salary disparities among faculty, and the evolution of the department chair into a fund-raising administrator. The discussion warns that emerging partnerships between universities, government, and private industry threaten to form a “military-industrial-educational complex,” compromising scholarly autonomy and reshaping curricula toward corporate priorities. Faculty marketization, driven by differential utility to corporate sponsors, is shown to exacerbate internal inequities and distort academic values. Finally, the paper critiques the reconceptualization of department chairs as entrepreneurs rather than intellectual leaders, arguing that such changes risk transforming education into a commercial enterprise. The essay concludes that higher education must reaffirm its ethical and intellectual independence, rejecting financial expediency as the measure of institutional success.
Recommended Citation
Gillespie, Patti P.
(1987)
"The Piper, the Animals, and the Hustler,"
Association for Communication Administration Bulletin: Vol. 59, Article 16.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/aca/vol59/iss1/16
