Public Universities as Real Estate Developers

"Public Universities as Real Estate Developers: Intergenerational Trauma & Debt"

Presented by Professor Mariana Valverde, University of Toronto.

Professor Valverde will discuss collaborative research on the capital projects processes of public universities in Ontario, Canada, shedding light on the political effects - on both internal governance and the public interest - of techniques used to plan, approve, and especially to fund capital projects. A key research finding is that the scale at which projects are planned, described, financed, and authorized - the scale of the isolated "deal" - has negative effects on both intra-university inequities and intergenerational justice, but these effects are difficult to see precisely because of the built-in features of "the art of the deal." How do fancy new buildings impose financial burdens on students attending or hoping to attend university in Ontario? Who wins and who loses in this era of university real estate development? By what mechanisms of power?

Hosted by MIT 4034 - Debt, Austerity, & the Media.