Search

The article discusses the need for serious internal debate and social science research into the structural changes affecting higher learning institutions in the United States. Jennifer Washburn's book "University, Inc." discusses corruption of the values of many universities due to efforts to conform to standards created by corporate capitalism since the 1970s and the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980, which was designed to encourage more patenting of products funded by federally financed academic research. Because of the capitalist approach of many universities, tuition costs have risen in a way that prohibits economically disadvantaged individuals from receiving higher education.

This article focuses on the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, a series of student-led demonstrations that was held at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China from April to June 1989. Turmoil was the Chinese government's word for the six weeks between mid-April and early June, the label with which officials chose to brand the student protest movement. On April 27, columns of students pushed through the only slightly resisting ranks of police officers and into Tiananmen Square. Apparently the government would not make good its threats of harsh repression. The police barriers were spaced every few hundred yards, and each successive breakthrough drew greater cheers than the last, building the momentum of protest. Students were marching on Tiananmen Square as part of China's third substantial pro-democracy movement in a decade. This one had been touched off by the death of Hu Yaobang, who as premier had presided over the last in 1986-1987. His inability to contain it had cost him his job. Now he was transformed from somewhat liberal party leader to revered martyr. Mourning him provided a pretext for taking to the streets and putting forward renewed demands: rehabilitate Hu; end corruption; hold a serious dialogue between party leaders and students.