Erin Stella

Writing 2010
Jesse Richards

When coming up with the labels for the clusters, I thought that all the articles had one
thing in common. The basic topic of everything is higher education, so I used that as the center
of my map. Once I put that in the middle, I branched off other camps and clusters. I went from
more broad topics, to more specific topics. I also wanted to make sure that everything somehow
was connected and you could lead back to the beginning of the map. I think the main point was
that, everything has the same main topic, but the way the authors discuss the topic and their
views are different. Even then some of articles share other similar ideas, which is interesting and
ideal for the map because you are able to visually see everything separating and coming together.
One of the big clusters I believe is related to money. The labels on the clusters that fall
under this category would be where money goes, prices of colleges, scholarships, debt, and
overall how universities are becoming an industry. In the article Are Colleges Worth the Price
of Admission by Hacker and Dreifus they discuss how the price of colleges nowadays is
becoming too much that, Graduating with six figures worth of debt is becoming increasingly
common (Hacker and Dreifus, 2010). When discussing how universities are becoming an
industry the big article that focused on this would be, Obtaining Integrity? Reviewing and
Examining the Charter between Higher Education and Society by Kezar. Her entire article is
surrounded by this idea that there is a change from an academic university to more industrialized.
Basically, universities are functioning increasingly as an industry with fluctuating,
predominantly economic goals and market-oriented values (Kezar 2004). Linking Diversity

with the Educational and Civic Missions of Higher Education by Hurtado discusses how
scholarships given to more diverse people will benefit the whole of universities (Hurtado 2006).
In correspondence to the topic of money, some ideas that branched off of money was the
role of the presidents and this idea of neoliberalism. In the article Out of the Ruins, the
University to come by Hanke and Hearn, they discuss how the dominant influence of
neoliberalism changed the basis of the what the university in Canada once was (Hanke and
Hearn 2012). Neoliberalism relates back to how universities are becoming an industry because of
its ties to economics. The role of presidents in universities also relates back to how universities
are becoming an industry. In the article, Research and the Bottom Line in Todays University
by Bonewits and Soley they mention how the presidents concern is how to bring in money as if
they are CEOs of a business (Bonewits and Soley 2004).
The next group I thought were somewhat related was how we think and the choices we
make about higher education affecting society and students. The choices that are made are also
influenced by race and social class. How we think is discussed in the article What is Academic
Writing by Irvin and the speech This is Water by David Foster. Irvin mentions that we need
higher education to help us think specifically when it comes to writing and how it will benefit
students knowing how to write. We need to understand how to research, read complex texts,
myths about writing, and different situations for higher education (Irvin 2010). David Foster
discusses how education benefits students and society because we learn how to think which,
leading us to making the right choices. Which then leads to the article, Choices of Degree or
Degree of Choice by Reay, where the idea that our choices are much more complex. In the
article it furthers that our race and social class have quite the impact on where a person chooses
to attend college (Reay 2001).

In addition to the larger clusters, I thought of other clusters that didnt quite fit in
anywhere specific. Those clusters were universities from other countries and critical universities.
There are two articles that discuss how universities are in other countries, which gives a different
perspective on higher education. We are able to see the difference yet similarities of universities
in the U.S. versus how they are in Canada and England. Then theres this idea of critical
university studies, which is mainly discussed in the article Deconstructing Academe: The birth
of critical university studies by Williams. In the article, he talks about how these critical
university studies first came about because of people realizing how higher education is changing
in universities. Interesting enough this relates back to how universities are becoming more of a
business.
Overall, looking at the relationship between multiple articles helps you have a better
understanding of a higher education. We are able to see the different subjects that are all liked to
back to the center of the map. I think visually the map helps us see these connections and follow
how different people view our education system in universities. Its interesting to see that even
those theres all these clusters and surrounding one topic, they all lead to the same conclusion.
We need to do something about our education system because following the map or even just
reading the articles its like the clusters and authors end up at the point that change is needed.

References
Bonewits, Sarah, and Lawrence Soley. "Research and the Bottom Line in Today's University."
(2004).
Hacker, Andrew, and Claudia Dreifus. "Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?" The
Chronicle of Higher Education. 11 July 2010.
Hanke, Bob, and Alison Hearn. "Out of the Ruins, the University to Come." (2012).
Hurtado, Sylvia. "Linking Diversity with the Educational and Civic Missions of Higher
Education." The Review of Higher Education 30.2 (2006).
Irvin, L. "What Is Academic Writing?" Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings 1 (2010).
Kezar, Adrianna J. "Obtaining Integrity? Reviewing and Examining the Charter between Higher
Education and Society." The Review of Higher Education 27.4 (2004).
Reay, D., J. Davies, M. David, and S. J. Ball. "Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class,
`Race' and the Higher Education Choice Process." Sociology 35.4 (2001).
Wallace, David Foster. "This Is Water." YouTube. YouTube, 2009.
Williams, Jeffrey. "An Emerging Field Deconstructs Academe." The Chronicle of Higher
Education. 19 Feb. 2012.