John F. Bridgers: Corporate cuts

Regarding the Dec. 2 news article “Protesters oppose corporate ownership of UNC bookstore”: UNC protesters should be seriously concerned about the prospect of corporate ownership of their 100-year-old campus bookstore. Today, the overriding purpose and mission of U.S. corporations is to maximize their profits. Usually, the easiest and most direct way to accomplish this is to cut costs – primarily payrolls that constitute their largest single expense.

Especially in the case of the UNC bookstore that has a limited market for growth, high book prices and growing competition from online book sellers, cost-cutting rather than increasing revenue will be the surest route to maximizing profit.

Why would UNC’s administration want to turn over control of the bookstore to Corporate America? Like Corporate America it wants to maximize profit regardless of its effect on store employees (mostly students), retirees, faculty and the UNC student body.

This ownership issue is just another example of Corporate America’s emphasis on maximizing profits spreading to UNC as well as other institutions of higher education. Higher salaries for higher education’s top administrators also mirror Corporate America’s compensation practices for its own top executives. Will Corporate America take control of higher education like it has our federal government?

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 4:53 PM with the headline "John F. Bridgers: Corporate cuts."