By Bradford J. Senning
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 5, 1998

University, Inc.

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Bradford J. Senning

The UA has been getting a lot of flak lately. Some students want to keep businesses off campus. Whatever form they take - Cellular One, McDonald's, Nike - these businesses are seen as inconsistent with the purposes of a university.

We're here to learn, right?

Nobody can argue about the purpose of a university. First and foremost, we are here for an education. But to say business doesn't belong here is to say that the UA isn't a business.

Sure, we'd like to have an elitist view of universities. We view these 4 (or 5) years in college as a time-out before entering the real world; "please don't disturb my illusion," is the request I'm hearing. But I'm sorry. The real world is branding its McDonaldland "M" on you and you've got to take it.

You'll grant that athletic stadiums were places of business before they started taking the names of corporations. Similarly, the University of Arizona was a place of business before considering becoming a "Nike School" (as the corporation will lovingly call us). The UA is a business. So there's no reason to say we can't let other businesses cohabitate with UA business.

The UA's product is an education. By calling it a product we aren't doing a disservice to the idea of education; we are only discussing the form it takes. Many students are quite aware that education is a product.

I've got a lot of friends majoring in business who went to school just so they could get that little piece of paper (called a "diploma" by liberal arts students). To them, it's a tangible product.

By calling it a product we're also getting into the mind of the UA's recruiting corps (called the "Office of Admissions" by university euphemists). To get potential students to buy their product, the UA engages in elaborate sales techniques, like any business.

If you went to high school in Arizona, the UA began its recruitment of you during your junior year. During that year the Office of Admissions invites you to a gala sales event called "Junior Day."

For an entire day, administrators and student leaders lavish you with respect and tell you you're brilliant. You're given so much attention you feel like you're on a used car lot. And it works. Many students decide that very day that they will attend the UA.

The UA is also fond of advertising, just like any business. The marketing team at the UA may not be brilliant, but it is certainly active. If you've driven around town you might have seen some UA billboards. Twelve of them ring the city with this message: "Find Yourself and Other Amazing Discoveries. "Like I said, they're active.

No question of ethics should bar a business from setting up camp at the UA. Business is usually an unethical practice.

We've got to remember that. The idea behind most marketing tactics is that a vast public won't buy your product unless you, like McDonald's, bring it closer to your target market or, like Nike, invest the product with psychological value. Like the UA, these businesses celebrate our existence for the simple fact that there's money to be made.

The UA makes big bucks from these business deals. At least by having companies be a part of our campus community, students will have daily reminders that the UA is a business.

We can't expect business concerns to be kept off campus when the university itself is a business. So relish your classes the same way you relish your Big Mac. Nothing's going to change.

Bradford J. Senning is a junior majoring in American literature and creative writing. His column, "The Emperor of Ice Cream," normally appears every Thursday.