The Death of the Art School

In a Hyperallergic opinion essay titled “The Death of the Art School,” a faculty member at Purchase College (State University of New York) argues that corporatization has reframed students as “consumers,” transforming education from a public good into a market transaction. The author links this shift to neoliberal policies such as reduced public funding, austerity, and the replacement of tenure lines with precarious contracts, which they say turns faculty into service providers and knowledge into a product. Citing an American Association of University Professors study, the essay states that between 1976 and 2011 non-faculty professional positions grew by roughly 369% while full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty grew by only 23%, a trend the author says has intensified. The piece also references the “demographic cliff” as a justification used to eliminate tenure-track positions at Purchase and replace them with cheaper, less secure labor.

Read the full article at Hyperallergic