In a sense, this movement was inevitable. Higher education has been transformed over the last 50 years, reshaped in many ways that bring into question what it?s for, how it works, who should lead it, and most importantly who it is serving. It is the failure of colleges and universities to sufficiently grapple with and address those key questions that led students to Occupy Colleges, and faculty to stand with them, and that set up college administrators to be largely inept in response.
Sara Goldrick-Rab is an associate professor of education policy studies and sociology at UW-Madison.