It’s only natural with teenagers and young adults heading off to college or returning that you wonder what goes on behind the scenes. Sometimes you’re just so pleased about their promise, that any thought about politics within departments is the last thing on your mind. Yet, if academia were bereft of politics, it would be a rarity among organizational types.
Even branches of the PTA and charities have politics — sometimes getting in the way of their missions. They may not see the interpersonal problems they have as politics, but likely that’s what is going on. When people disagree and, for example, a few get together to resist what they see as the intrusion of others, some level of politics is operating. It may be constructive politics. If gossip, however, or “poisoning of wells,” is prevalent, then likely the politics is high or perhaps pathological as described in The Secret Handshake. If what is said is not what is meant or different criteria apply to different people, it’s time for a heads-up. If the power is held in the hands of a few and they place their own best interests first, students need to know how to manage the system.
Why wouldn’t colleges and universities have political activity — why not each department? If you’re paying thousands of dollars to go to college or for your child to do so, as he or she begins to select a major knowing something about the politics of the department is wise. One of the best sources for this information is graduate students. They know, for example, if the department is one of shared power, open-mindedness, flexibility or rigidity and if differences are handled with professionalism. One graduate student, one professor, is not enough to learn about the politics of the place where you or your adult child will spend a good part of at least two years of undergraduate education.
We know and accept that organizations have politics. Why not believe this of universities too? In Shadow Campus the politics are excessive. It’s fiction. Yet, even within fiction there are lessons to be learned. It’s a rare look behind the scenes of a university that needs to work on its politics — too many bad guys in power. It’s very unlikely that there are lots of bad guys making life miserable where you or your child will go to college. But you have to know if that nonfictional place will be putting student interests first. It’s fine for politics to exist, just not to the extent that education, transparency and fairness take a back seat.
As you or a young person you know enters or returns to college, give the existence of politics some thought. Even in elementary and secondary schools politics from minimal to pathological can exist. You might as well know what you’re getting into. Then at least if you or your child stay, it’ll be with both eyes open.
