Radical Care in the Neoliberal Institution: Two Administrators in Conversation

Institutions of higher education are increasingly marked by neoliberal strategies of operation and transaction, when both the institutions and the students ask how they can get the most return on their investment. The rhetoric of “crisis” in higher education is often used to delay care work and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) initiatives, further taxing exhausted individuals and prioritizing profit over people. In this conversation, two administrators at primarily undergraduate institutions ask what role care can play as a radical tool to disrupt neoliberal thinking and center relationships with their colleagues and students. Despite the inherent conflict between capitalism and care, the authors argue, strategies of care—which can include supporting faculty, slowing down, arguing against curricular cuts, furthering DEIJ work, and pursuing joy—can meet the needs of the people who make the institutions.