"They say America First, but they mean America next."

In an effort to better understand the political context of U.S. higher education institutions in the early 1940s for the chapter I'm revising now, I turned yesterday to labor/social historian Stephen Norwood's recent The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower (Cambridge University Press, 2009).  Norwood's book is an accessible account of the entanglements between university administrators and the Nazi regime at Harvard, Columbia, the Seven Sisters, and in German departments across the U.S.  There is much in Norwood's account which readers unfamiliar with the story of the pro-fascist leanings of much of the U.S. academic and financial elite in the 1930s will find shocking.  Harvard President James Conant and Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, were both deeply antisemitic and endeavored to build institutional relationships with the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy, even as both carried out increasingly brutal actions against unionists, communists, and, in the former case, German Jewry.

Norwood ably and convincingly documents the relationship between the U.S. elite university in the 1930s and the ideological projects and diplomatic missions of the nazi state.  But 80 pages in, I feel like there are some blanks i need filled - Norwood doesn't really historicize or explain the fascist sympathies that seem to have been almost universal at Harvard and slightly less so at Columbia due in part to the larger number of Jewish students at the latter.  He doesn't really explain the class structure or the relationship to the state and/or society of any of the institutions he examines.  Though his expose is valuable for historians of higher education, I want to suggest that some gestures towards broader conclusions would have greatly enhanced his text.  So would an introduction laying out the stakes, scale, and scope of these transoceanic fascisms and their importance for U.S. politics, knowledge production, and the history of universities.

Need to cut this entry short to run to campus.

Via Really Open University, London Metropolitan University is Occupied.

Statement

A certain area of the Tower Building in Holloway Road is being currently occupied by students in protest against Vice- Chancellor Malcolm Gillies’ decision to axe 70% of courses- including Performing Arts, Philosophy and History.

Gillies’ decision came as a shock a couple of weeks ago. None of the university teaching staff was consulted about the cuts. A majority of the excellent, dedicated tutors are under imminent threat of losing their jobs.

Students already enrolled on the courses face an uncertain future. There have been rumours about transfers to other universities with which WE DO NOT AGREE.

This statement is our call for help to save our university, our future and our dreams: to keep London Metropolitan University open to everyone, regardless of their social class, wealth and chosen subject of study. The purpose of this occupation is to present the Vice-Chancellor with our demands

Demands

1. Meeting with Vice- Chancellor
2. Transparent process and direct communication
3. University management goes back to HEFCE to renegotiate repayment terms
4. Vice- Chancellor to accept proposals put forward by staff in HALE
5. University retracts decision of cuts of ALL courses
6. Students on existing courses which are being deleted, WILL NOT BE TRANSFERRED.
7. Free access IN and OUT of the Occupation
8. No student is victimized following action taken to occupy the space.

Website: http://www.wearelondonmet.wordpress.com