Neoliberal Sleight of Hand in a University Strategic Plan: Weaponized Sustainability, Strategic Absences, and Magic Time
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This research analyzed the University of Manitoba (UofM) Strategic Plan to both quantify the occurrence of specific keywords and make inferences about the purpose, messages, and effects being communicated by those keywords. In the first section of this paper, we provide an overview of the historical development and purpose of the neoliberal university. Second, we engage with content and critical discourse analysis to understand how academic work and academic identities are established by the strategic plan, a document that few faculty members consult regularly, and fewer still have a hand in developing. The foundational ideals of the UofM, cited at the beginning of the Strategic Plan are tracked through the document, and keywords as determined by frequency count are then similarly tracked. The findings reveal that most of the foundational ideals are not well-represented in the strategic plan; others, like sustainability, are euphemized. Keywords related to increasing workload are found over 60 times in the document, all in the context of decreased funding. We conclude that the strategic plan is a clear mandate for more to be completed with less. We refer to this aspect of workload creep as the need for “magic time.” Key words: workload creep, magic time, neoliberalism, higher education, keyword analysis. Cette recherche a analysé le plan stratégique de l'Université du Manitoba afin de quantifier l'occurrence de mots-clés spécifiques et de faire des inférences sur l'objectif, les messages et les effets communiqués par ces mots-clés. Dans la première section de ce document, nous présentons un aperçu du développement historique et de l'objectif de l'université néolibérale. Ensuite, nous nous engageons dans une analyse du contenu et du discours critique afin de comprendre l’établissement du travail et des identités universitaires par le plan stratégique, un document que peu de membres du corps enseignant consultent régulièrement, et à l'élaboration duquel encore moins participent. La présence des idéaux fondateurs de l'Université du Manitoba, cités au début du plan stratégique, a été suivie tout au long du document et l’emploi des mots-clés, déterminés par le comptage de fréquence, a ensuite été suivi de la même manière. Les résultats révèlent que la plupart des idéaux fondateurs ne sont pas bien représentés dans le plan stratégique ; d'autres, comme la durabilité, sont euphémisés. Les mots-clés liés à l'augmentation de la charge de travail se retrouvent plus de 60 fois dans le document, tous dans le contexte d'une diminution du financement. Nous en concluons que le plan stratégique est un mandat clair pour que l'on fasse plus avec moins. Nous appelons cet aspect de l'augmentation de la charge de travail le besoin de « temps magique ». Mots-clés: progression de la charge de travail, temps magique, néolibéralisme, enseignement supérieur, analyse des mots clés
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.016 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.006 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.005 | 0.009 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.006 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".