Has Ohio State Sold Out Analysis

Words: 1295
Pages: 6

Kyle McCullough
Cody Brown
English 101
Essay #3
28 October 2015
Has Ohio State Sold Out? For some time now Ohio State has been selling of its assets to private companies to make a profit. The question is, are they still holding education as its primary goal? Or has their view changed to something else? Ohio State has definitely gone too far with its desire for money. Steven Conn, a professor and director of the public-history program at Ohio State has plenty to say about the topic. In his article, he expresses his point of view. Ohio State along with numerous colleges across the nation have surcome to the amount of money that can potentially be made through the college “business”. They have come to value money over maintaining a high education
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In Conn’s article is, “Welcome to Ohio State, Where Everything Is for Sale”, he believes that Ohio State has gotten to a point where money is more important than education. Conn states in a joking way, “Make us an offer on something, and we’ll sell it to you like a pair of pants at a department store closeout.”(1). Ohio State has come to a point where they are “selling out” is his opinion. Their first deal was with Coke turning the campus into a “Coke Campus” where the only beverages they advertise are coke Products. The next big deal was with an Australian investment firm, leasing them all of campus parking for 50 years. This deal was worth close to $500 million bucks. 84% of the faculty opposed the deal but none the less it happened. Since then, parking prices have increased to outrageous numbers. Conn then jokes some more about how the university plans to sell off things like lights and heating and cooling as well. He talks about how people have gotten bitter about the way their institution has been “corporatized”. Ohio State is no longer no. 1 in public-college presidential pay like they used to be. Conn is saying that OSU is becoming their own private equity firm, selling off their own assets to make a profit for private investment companies like Coke or the Australian company mentioned earlier. Conn then continues with this idea of “core mission” and how it has changed into this “sell all” idea where everything starts to look like something that can be sold to make a profit. Next he continues with how focused on money the university is. His example is football, the library, and French department. “The athletics program actually makes money, where the library and the French department are loss lenders.” (Conn 4). The people in charge have realized this, and that’s why those departments that don’t make a profit have been cut completely or