Opinion: Calling students customers limits all of North Carolina

In her first remarks as the newly elected president of the UNC system, Margaret Spellings expressed her admiration for North Carolina’s motto: “Esse quam videri,” attributed to Roman statesman Cicero and meaning, “to be rather than to seem.”

UNC is a public university, and it must not only seem it, but be it. Yet Spellings seems to treat UNC as a business.

According to the (Raleigh) News & Observer, Spellings has referred to students, individual campuses, businesses, even boards of trustees and the state legislature as “customers.”

She says she hopes to protect student customers’ return on investment.

Spellings’ focus on accessibility is necessary. But these are not customers, they are collaborators, and UNC serves all people in North Carolina, not only those who pay tuition. Furthermore, labeling these groups as “customers” strips them of the agency that is at the very heart of the democratic project of public education.

The UNC system, off of a state investment of 2.3 billion dollars, offers a return of 27.9 billion dollars of added value to the North Carolina economy. The return on investment is a return for all North Carolinians, not only the students of the University.

Unlike businesses, public universities exist to extend services to the people and pursue truth without compromise. This ideal is not only one held by this editorial board; it is enshrined in North Carolina’s constitution.

Spellings should explain both her language and her vision for the University in North Carolina. Calling students “customers” is a sharp about-face from previous system president Tom Ross.

Last spring, Tom Ross lamented this transactional view of the University.

“We increasingly view our colleges and universities as nothing more than factories that must demonstrate an immediate return on investment for consumers. Places that only train people for the workforce,” he said.

Spellings bemoans the inaccessibility of higher education. Ironically, rising costs are in some part the result of the growing number of students who attend college. Nationwide, state funding for public education has grown by around 2 percent since 1990, while the student population has soared by over 60 percent.

Spellings should remember Cicero’s critics. He extolled the virtues of the republic while squashing attempts of poor, un-landed Romans to improve their lot.

Education remains a crucial tool for battling poverty and inequity in North Carolina. President-elect Spellings should remember that the people her office serves are not only the students of the university, but the people of North Carolina, who support our education and reap its benefits too.

Labeling students as customers at the moment that North Carolina is extending the promise of a university education to those for whom it was previously inaccessible strips students of the agency we hope a university education might bring us.