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Ep. 07
Concerns about cuts to higher education are not new. Austerity Blues was published in 2016, and it chronicles a decade of austerity impacts to the New York and California state college systems. So we’re nearly 25 years into a steady disinvestment in higher educations. Is our present moment just more of the same? Or have we entered into something new and even more concerning? Can Higher Education achieve its aims to address affordability, increase access, and meet DEI goals while facing increasingly dire financial constraints? Hope is an act of resistance, and imagining a better, different future for HE is a radical act of defiance. The Blues, as an art form, brings a sober recognition of ‘what is’. But the Blues are also an escape, a form of catharsis, and a place to formulate a strategy for positive change. Worked all the summer And worked all the fall I had to take my Christmas In my overalls But now she’s gone An’ I don’t worry Because I’m sittin’ on top of the world –Howlin’ Wolf, Sittin’ on Top of the World This radio hour encourages listeners to call in and, in equal measure, comment on our current austerity blues AND find our way out.