Read on Twitter
Realized today that I’ve become so accustomed to austerity, I can’t actually fathom what it would be like working in a well-supported higher education sector. I probably wouldn’t just accept as normal near-zero merit or cost of living adjustments in the last 7 years.
There’s a weird psychology to having only ever known a higher ed constantly being cut and squeezed. Like when we get disaster relief, I immediately get worried it’ll be viewed as a windfall and justify future cuts. I’ve somehow normalized we aren’t deserving and balk at support.
It makes me think about the ways I (and maybe others) have stunted our imagination around higher ed because of the little voice that says: “that’ll never fly, there’s no money.” Or “be happy with what you’ve got because it’ll be gone soon.”
I think about how little I’ve allowed myself to believe in policies related to debt forgiveness or free college because I’ve assumed they would be impossible. They just felt like these things on the perimeter that couldn’t ever break through the austerity walls.
Anyway, this is one way I’ve tried to understand this weird feeling I have under the Biden administration. There’s talk of these ideas breaking through. My brain can’t seem to accommodate the possibility of higher ed being supported.
Maybe this is what hope feels like. After an especially dark 4 years, even a sliver of light feels a little shocking. But it has me thinking about the cultural and psychological shifts that will need to be part of the “years of repair.”
After sitting with this for a few hours, I thought about the many people who imagined and fought in the midst of austerity, and I’m grateful for their ability to craft an alternative vision in so much haze. That policies are even getting traction is due to their efforts.
And I’m reflecting on how much of what I tweeted comes from fear. Fear of the ground suddenly being pulled out. Fear of risk when there’s no safety net. Fear of backlash. Austerity’s big lie is that we can’t afford to invest in social institutions or care for people.
We need leaders, in higher ed and other spaces, to not lead from a place from a fear. I see signs of that type of leadership in responses to the most recent culture war battlefronts. But we can’t squander an opportunity to do big things for people and social institutions again.
