Corporate Occupancy of Pratt Space

Ryu Tomita

Eng 101B.01

Prof. Sacha Frey

December 7th, 2012

Corporate Occupancy of Pratt Space

Though we tend to think higher education is unaffected by corporations to offer an unbiased education, it appears it is inevitable for corporations to permeate the boundaries of the institution. With this understanding of the greater good of the students’ education and corporate influence on campus, a map can be created mapping the intensity and density of capitalism and education in certain areas depicting the clash between the two forces.

As DeCerteau would have explained, Pratt’s campus is a located on space. It includes buildings, classrooms, school facilities, lawns, and offices, but those spaces are merely spaces. What makes the space meaningful and fulfill the potentials of its boundaries are the ideas, emotions, and/or meaning. Part of what fills the invisible space is corporate influence and their influence can be seen in different scenes. Tiffany and Co. has had a huge influence on Pratt for assisting in the design for the library. Starbucks is served in all cafes around campus including Higgins Hall and Pratt Studios. Naked Juice and Illy Coffee offer raffles in the cafeteria and their hats are worn by the dining hall staff. MTV is displayed on the cafeteria television screen.

            These observations contradict the purpose of a school to create a non-biased educational environment. Schools and intuitions should minimize the influence from corporate beliefs and a capitalistic mentality in order to allow students to develop a strong education and less dependency on materialism.

            Thus there is a clash between two forces on this campus, or a LOCAL “gameboard”-type configuration as Corner would explain. (The gameboard is generally seen in a bigger city-planning scale) On one hand there is a party, mainly the students, who are either opposed or careless of the influence of corporations, in order to maximize a their education; on the other, there is the corporations which takes advantage and influences the population that is present within this space.

            If this is to be seen on a map, locations that house classrooms would hold a strong density of student force, which I will call S. On the other hand, public spaces such as the cafeteria or lounges will house capitalism or C. For example: the dining hall program doesn’t host lecture or classes to offer education so it would not have much S; however, because it stocks and advertise food and drinks such as Coca-Cola and Dirty Potato chips, which are forms of marketed snacks owned by corporations (Dirty Potato chips is owned underZappe Endeavors which is owned by Utz Quality foods), it will have a strong C.

            As a result of the high prices that the corporations charge the students, many students resort to local groceries and restaurants. Personally, my friends and I often eat outside of school in order to save money. One student explains, “I’d rather eat outside because the food is expensive and not good quality. Yamashiro tastes better.”

            The data for S and A is more qualitative than quantitative because it is based on not only how often it can be seen, but how influential it is towards for the student.  The computer lab is an example of my argument. The Pratt campus holds four computer labs dispersed throughout campus. The wide screen and up-to-date computers are used as classrooms and as workstations and are open throughout the day and until midnight. The computers are helpful because they allow students to access the latest technology in order to learn and adapt to new software and gears; however, there is also a lot of corporate influence in the labs. Out of the four computer labs, three of it holds Apple computers. This is great for Apple branding and marketing because it is able to boast to students the latest technology and its slick design. It also targets many students to want an Apple computer because Apple only holds about 20% of the Operating System market compared to the 65% by Windows. Pratt being a privately-owned school also means that students are more likely to be from wealth, making the students an easier target as a business. The influence of the company cannot be measured by numbers because it also has a strong density of S, but also is pulled by the C factor. 

            Although an educational environment should lack influence from corporations, it is inevitable. Corporate influence can be seen throughout the Pratt campus from the dining halls to computer labs. There is another variable composed of the student body who are against or careless of its influence. If a map of Pratt is drawn the qualitative densities of S, it would be greater in areas like classrooms where there is less corporate influence, compared to computer labs where there is a huge corporate influence.