Thread by @cohenss

"The General Assembly has chosen not to fund the University Press of Kentucky. We received $672,000 in the current fiscal year; and we will be working with our partner institutions to identify ways to sustain the financial viability of the Press." 1/

wtvq.com/2018/04/02/uk-…

I gave a paper this past weekend on the condition of university presses in the context of what's happening in public higher ed. It focused on the history of scholarly publishing at my school, the University of Missouri. Kentucky came up too. 2/

I got into the archives and found records from the establishment in 1902 of the University Studies series, which published the work of the university's own scholars 3/

I found the report from a 1946 committee that explored the possibility of opening a University Press that published the work of scholars from beyond the campus 4/

I found the report of the 1957 committee that argued for the establishment of a UP at the university 5/

I used these documents to talk about the history of U of MO's press, which was briefly closed in 2012, and about the larger history of UPs, drawing from Peter Givler, &c., which is the history of a commitment not to commerce but to encouraging and disseminating scholarship 6/

But the history of UPs, at MO and elsewhere, is also the history of defunding, and the pressures put on UPs by it 7/

In the talk I used the analogy (offered, gratis, by @NotARaja) of the frog and the pond--the indicator species that lets us know the pond ecosystem is sick--to describe the relationship between UPs and public universities. 8/

When we talk about the UP of Kentucky closing, we need to look at the defunding of higher ed, and when we talk about that we need to look at the defunding of the states by their own governors and legislators. 9/

When we talk about what state politicans are doing to their own universities and other public institutions, we need to look at what's happened to the revenue in these states, at what's been done to make such defunding inevitable. 10/

When we talk about the governing philosophy that allows these people to destroy their own states' institutions, we need to look at our own culture--at the beliefs that have made it okay to starve and poison the pond that should allow these institutions to thrive. 11/

And when we talk about all that threatens the essential institution of the university press and other crucial parts of public higher education, we need to look at who's going to be on the ballot and we need to support those who support the things we value. 12/

Remember, scholarly publishing didn't used to be expected to support itself, let alone bring in $. UPs were a public good. But as states have starved their schools, UPs have been expected to turn profits in a way that big-time college sports, for example, aren't (and don't). 13/

So to add to the list of things we should look at when we talk about what's happening to university presses: what are the institutions to which we think it's okay to devote resources, and what are the things we don't think are worth it? And what do these lists say about us? 14/14