UNC Libraries Face Huge Budget Cuts

Chapel Phil

In our first episode of the 2021-2022 school year, Andy, Samad, and Max discuss the ethics behind keeping academia locked behind paywalls. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a number of financial issues for the university, but why are our JSTOR subscriptions are the first to go ?

Tools that are vital to the education of students, support of staff with research in the works, and just general fairness of access of academia to the public seems like a right, not a privilege. Don't we students, paying to attend a top research university, have the right to access the very works conducted by our university? Or, can we see beyond the present struggles and see this may be a necessary evil to ensure the fiscal stability and long-term health of the UNC system?

Resources:

The Daily Tar Heel report on the cuts: https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2021/10/opinion-library-budget-cuts

Utilitarianism and the long-run fiscal stability: Gary Woller (BYU Professor). “An Overview by Gary Woller.” A Forum on the Role of Environmental Ethics. June 1997. pp. 10

Collections FAQ: https://library.unc.edu/collections/faq-about-collections-reductions/

Budget cuts op-ed: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2405890223744/op-ed-library-budget-cuts-are-unacceptable-and-unnecessary

Consequences are being felt already: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2012/01/10/how-budget-cuts-are-affecting-unc-health-sciences-library/

WUNC reports on the cuts: https://www.wunc.org/education/2021-10-06/unc-chapel-hill-plans-cut-5-million-libraries-funding-priorities

All music used in this episode was obtained through Epidemic Sound.

All views and opinions discussed in this podcast are our own. The Parr Center for Ethics does not endorse the opinions stated in this podcast.