Abstract
This chapter describes a novel policy mechanism for revitalizing U.S. public higher education in the age of COVID-19. In place of the current tuition-as-revenue model, we propose the “Uni” model, whereby public colleges and universities tap their latent fiscal authority to issue and circulate complementary currencies. Like their U.S. dollar counterparts, Uni currencies will obtain value because they will be accepted by colleges and universities in payment for tuition, fees, meal plans, and rents. To outline the full potential of the Uni, a thought experiments situates it between local municipalities and receivability in property taxes and as an instrument guaranteed by the Federal Reserve. When implemented, the Uni system will enable colleges to keep workers paid and students safe throughout and beyond the current crisis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Included in this view is the assumption that higher education budget cuts—resulting in campus layoffs and furloughs—would be a natural and even uncontestable outcome of the COVID-19 crisis. This misguided position is evident in an online petition signed by over 3,000 academics, many of them very prominent in their respective fields (“COVID-19” 2020).
- 2.
There is good reason to conclude that the lackluster and haphazard fiscal policy responses by Congress and the White House have extended the duration of the coronavirus pandemic (Dayen 2020a, July 6).
- 3.
Only the state of Illinois has so far formally participated in the MLF program, according to the Fed’s July 10 transaction report.
- 4.
Nathan Tankus (2020) has called these promises “University Payments Anticipation Notes,” or UPANs.
- 5.
On anchor institutions and their role in monetary architecture, see Benjamin C. Wilson (2019).
- 6.
- 7.
In this way, the Unis project builds on previous work on classroom and campus currencies, like the Denison Volunteer Dollar (DVD) and the “Buckaroo” program at University of Missouri, Kansas City (Kaboub 2012).
- 8.
For an example of a contemporary MMT-driven policy that would make meaningful long-term economic impacts, see Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s BOOST Act proposal (2020), which was co-authored by Modern Money Network president Rohan Grey. For a more speculative proposal for policy intervention in US media, see Maxximilian Seijo et al. (2020).
- 9.
For one such humbling account, see Money on the Left (2018).
- 10.
As thoroughly documented by organizations like Fed Up: The National Campaign for a Strong Economy.
References
Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1977).
Carrillo, Raúl. “Challenging Monetary Sanctions in the Era of Racial Taxation,” UCLA Criminal Law Justice Review 4, no. 1 (2020), 143–155.
“COVID-19: A Statement of Academic Solidarity,” Academicsolidaritystatement.com, https://www.academicsolidaritystatement.com/?fbclid=IwAR1bkD7-LB30lIUfvGN4RYpZs0qlsshnbgAddL6CiFiO8PFxTfQ2_Cahkac
Daly, Matthew. “Mail Delays Likely as New Postal Service Boss Pushes Cost-Cutting,” WHYY, July 16, 2020a, https://whyy.org/articles/mail-delays-likely-as-new-postal-service-boss-pushes-cost-cutting/
Dayen, David. “Unsanitized: How the CARES Act Contributed to the Pandemic Surge,” American Prospect, July 6, 2020a, https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-cares-act-led-to-pandemic-surge-state-fiscal-aid
Dayen, David. “Unsanitized: How the Pandemic Expands Corporate Power,” American Prospect, July 22, 2020b, https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-how-the-pandemic-expands-corporate-power-monopolized/
Federal Reserve Board. “Municipal Liquidity Facility,” Federalreserve.gov, 2020, https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/muni.htm
Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “Municipal Liquidity Facility Notice of Interest,” NewYorkFed.org, https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/markets/mlf-notice-of-interest
Fed Up and The Center for Popular Democracy. “A People’s Fed: To Serve the Public Interest, the Federal Reserve Must Become Fully Public: Here’s How,” WhatRecovery.org, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx9EptRDW4_NUlFZNUpVUzhqaGs4cE9qT202TW1VR2xiSnVN/view
Feinig, Jakob. “Toward a Moral Economy of Money? Money as a Creature of Democracy,” Journal of Cultural Economy (2020).
Ferguson, Scott. Declarations of Dependence: Money, Aesthetics, and the Politics of Care (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2018), 4.
Ferguson, Scott, Benjamin Wilson, William Saas, and Maxximilian Seijo. “Overcoming COVID-19 Requires Rethinking University Finance,” b2o, July 8, 2020, http://www.boundary2.org/2020/07/scott-ferguson-benjamin-wilson-william-saas-maxximilian-seijo-overcoming-covid-19-requires-rethinking-university-finance/
Fraser, Nancy. “The Crisis of Progressive Neoliberalism,” Law and Political Economy, January 25, 2018, https://lpeblog.org/2018/01/25/the-crisis-of-progressive-neoliberalism/
Hern, Kevin. “Hern Introduces Resolution Condemning Modern Monetary Theory,” Hern.House.Gov, July 17, 2020, https://hern.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=219&fbclid=IwAR2Pe7kR1x-_6gOGSWroUSJiScH3HTM0Mrt6MbHsaCNu-UChpNf-8yM3zVM
Kaboub, Fadhel. “Denison Volunteer Dollars: The Currency of Civic Engagement,” YouTube, July 2, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSQ6POEV86U
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (New York: Picador, 2007).
Knox, Ron and Shaoul Sussman. “How Amazon Used the Pandemic to Amass More Monopoly Power,” The Nation, June 26, 2020, https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/amazon-bezos-pandemic-monopoly/
Linnane, Ciara. “Apple Plans Four-Part Bond Deal for Later Monday,” Marketwatch.com, May 4, 2020, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-plans-four-part-bond-deal-for-later-monday-2020-05-04
Mirowski, Philip. Never Let a Serious Crisis go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown (New York: Verso, 2013).
Money on the Left, “The Job Guarantee as Historical Struggle with David Stein,” Monthly Review Online, May 27, 2018, https://mronline.org/2018/05/27/job-guarantee-as-historical-struggle-with-david-stein/
Money on the Left, “The Modern Money Movement with Andrés Bernal,” Monthly Review Online, August 15, 2019, https://mronline.org/2019/08/15/the-modern-money-movement-with-andres-bernal/
Pelley, Scott. “Coronavirus and the Economy: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios from Minneapolis Fed President,” 60 Minutes, March 22, 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-and-economy-best-and-worst-case-scenarios-60-minutes-2020-03-22/
Resident Assistant Peer/Mentor Union, “RAPMU Reopening Proposals,” 2020, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1psWUI4PGVVYOJ9flQiwsWKWHK9qhdLPFjonToNo4R7M/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwAR2pKwOHzggugNSJsrrQGFtm1Bl7D-1eYJDfQNgzD4s5yIfnu2VgmkJCTkc
Seijo, Maxximilian. “Governing Media Information through a Green New Deal: History, Theory, Practice,” Journal of Environmental Media 1, no. 2 (forthcoming 2020).
Seijo, Maxximilian, William Saas, Scott Ferguson, and Benjamin Wilson, “#Unis4all: An Open Letter to the U.S. Higher Education Community,” MROnline, May 15, 2020, https://mronline.org/2020/05/15/unis4all-an-open-letter-to-the-u-s-higher-education-community/
Saas, William O. “The Econo-Rhetorical Presidency and the U.S. Fiscal Situation,” Advances in the History of Rhetoric 21, no. 2 (2018, Summer), 131–146.
Sorvino, Chloe. “Uber’s Grubhub Play: A Desperate Bid to Save a Business Everyone Hates,” Forbes, May 13, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2020/05/13/ubers-grubhub-play-a-desperate-bid-to-save-a-business-everyone-hates/#df7f71f43894
Spector, Mike and Jessica DiNapoli, “On Eve of Bankruptcy, U.S. Firms Shower Execs with Bonuses,” Reuters, July 17, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-bankruptcy-bonuses-idUSKCN24I1EE
State University of New York, “Mission Statement,” https://www.suny.edu/about/mission/.
State University of New York, “State University of New York and Department of Financial Services Sign Landmark MOU to Launch a Virtual Currency Program,” June 24, 2020, https://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/06-20/6-24-20/virtual-currency-program.html
Taibbi, Matt. “Turns Out the Trillion-Dollar Bailout Was, in Fact, Real,” Rolling Stone, March 18, 2019, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/2008-financial-bailout-809731/
Tankus, Nathan. “Responding to the University Budget Crisis with University Currencies,” Notes on the Crises, May 14, 2020, https://nathantankus.substack.com/p/responding-to-the-university-budget
Tlaib, Rashida. “BOOST Act,” Tlaib.House.gov, 2020 https://tlaib.house.gov/issues/boost-act
Wilson, Benjamin C. “A Dirigisme Approach to a Monetary Policy Jobs Guarantee and the Green New Deal,” June 27, 2019, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3411111
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Saas, W.O., Wilson, B.C., Ferguson, S., Seijo, M. (2022). The Uni Currency Project: Democratic Finance for Public Higher Education After COVID-19. In: Wilson, B.C. (eds) Care, Climate, and Debt. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96355-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96355-2_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96354-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-96355-2
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)