University of Chicago Press Broke – The Racial Consequences of Underfunding Public Universities

Public research universities were previously able to provide excellent education to white families thanks to healthy government funding. However, that funding has all but dried up in recent decades as historically underrepresented students have gained greater access, and now less prestigious public universities face major economic challenges. In Broke, Laura T. Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen examine virtually all aspects of campus life to show how the new economic order in public universities, particularly at two campuses in the renowned University of California system, affects students. For most of the twentieth century, they show, less affluent families of color paid with their taxes for wealthy white students to attend universities where their own offspring were not welcome. That changed as a subset of public research universities, some quite old, opted for a "new" approach, making racially and economically marginalized youth the lifeblood of the university. These new universities, however, have been particularly hard hit by austerity. To survive, they've had to adapt, finding new ways to secure funding and trim costs--but ultimately it's their students who pay the price, in decreased services and inadequate infrastructure. The rise of new universities is a reminder that a world-class education for all is possible. Broke shows us how far we are from that ideal and sets out a path for how we could get there. Review " Broke is theoretically rich, empirically sound, and radically clear-eyed about race and racism. It is high time that sociology and higher education research reckon with the inherent racialization of the institutions upon which we have pinned so many of our hopes for social change."--Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges "While their better-off peers enjoy the fruits of massive endowments and high tuitions, the striving students of 'new universities'--less-prestigious research universities serving disproportionately Black and Brown students--get the short end of the stick. A must-read analysis of the self-reinforcing effects of racist austerity logics and their painful human consequences, Broke pulls no punches." --Elizabeth Popp Berman, author of Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine " Broke has the makings of a classic for the sociology of higher education, race, and class stratification. Hamilton and Nielsen document the evolution of the 'new university' in race- and class-stratified society during what they coin as the 'postsecondary racial neoliberal' era. Bolstered by strong empirical analyses and captivating, incisive writing, this book draws the reader in and beckons us to shatter both the realities and ironies of segregated university education as conduits of economic mobility in a wealthy society." --Prudence L. Carter, author of Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture, and Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools "In a crowded field of studies on higher education, Broke distinguishes itself by presenting a truly unique, multifaceted, and critical portrait of the 'new university' as a racial project. Hamilton and Nielsen convincingly demonstrate how processes of 'postsecondary racial neoliberalism' concentrate underrepresented students of color in the least resourced public universities. In these institutional settings, diversity policies and practices are shaped not by only colorblind ideology, but austerity as well."--Michael Omi and Howard Winant, coauthors of Racial Formation in the United States About the Author Laura T. Hamilton is professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced. She is coauthor of Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality and author of Parenting to a Degree: How Family Matters for College and Beyond. Kelly Nielsen is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Merced.