June 25, 1999

From Yale to UT
Guest Columnist Laura Dunn

I grew up in a custody battle. For nearly eight years, court psychiatrists tossed me around trying to figure out to whom they should give me. All the while, my parents each insisted on completely opposite stories, and wanting to trust them both, I wrestled with the inconsistencies. With each passing year, notions of finding the truth faded. I slowly and reluctantly began to understand that certain contradictions are, by nature, irreconcilable, and that truth resides in a mosaic of grays.

During my freshman year at Yale, far away from my family, I encountered a new disparity. My roommates were among the wealthiest people I had ever met. One of them had a father who serves on the board of the stock exchange. And as I walked the streets of New Haven, the face of urban poverty glared right through me. Inside the tall ivy-covered courtyard walls, through the iron gates, college students share intellectual endeavors, melodic reflection and playful afternoons. Outside were people begging for change, a steady stream of ambulance sirens and crack baggies lining the sidewalk. What blew my mind most of all, however, was the indifference of my fellow classmates. Inside, we attended lectures about the democratic foundations of the United States. Outside, we look down and pass quickly by people in despair. We are "the leaders of the future," yet we can't look the present in the eye. Something wasn't quite right.

For two years, I kept my confusion quiet. But during the fall of my junior year, when the university demanded major cutbacks in the wages and benefits of their employees, I found an avenue for reckoning with the painful contradiction of my education. The two local unions that make up the majority of Yale employees have a long history of challenging the university, and 1996 proved to be no different in this respect. They organized protests with national activists such as Jesse Jackson, drawing national attention to what they perceived as an abuse of authority. The unions protested that Yale, a world-class university that educates our nation's presidents, has a moral responsibility to help the less fortunate citizens of New Haven. But in another respect, 1996 proved to be very different. After a year of strikes and protests, the unions gave in. Over 250 custodians lost their jobs, and all incoming dining hall workers now face minimum wage, non-benefit level jobs.

When I interviewed Yale administrators about the potential devastation to New Haven, they defended their policies, citing the national economy. "We must remain competitive," President Richard Levin explained. When asked about the special role institutions of higher education play in shaping the moral character of our country, he agreed, and said that he sees no conflict between Yale's labor policy and the quest to make the world a better place. Out of 1,300 undergraduates, about 25 showed sympathy with the unions, and most students I interviewed, with picket signs in the background, claimed to know very little about the situation and therefore did not have opinions.

As a graduate student here at UT, I have experienced similar phenomena. With the nation's second largest university endowment, the Board of Trustees continues to demand more work for less pay from its over 10,000 employees. Students wait in long lines for Taco Bell and Starbucks and Wendy's. The corporate face of higher education has drawn itself over campuses across the country. And students accept it with open arms, each of us scurrying for the highest paying consulting or advertising or investment-banking job. Ideals are hard to come by.

My Yale education taught me that sometimes contradiction resolves itself, and that truth can be absolute. Unlike the court custody battle of my childhood, where I could never make sense of all the conflicting perspectives, the conflicts I have encountered in my education yield a clear, solid color picture of reality. As a generation, we are selling out.

Dunn's documentary film, "The Subtext of a Yale Education" will be screened Friday, June 25, 7pm at the AFL-CIO building at11th and Lavaca streets. A panel discussion with local activists and academics will follow.