Indebted: Cultural Implications and the Role of Debt As Discipline on a Public College Campus

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2019 Indebted: Cultural Implications and the Role of Debt as Discipline on a Public College Campus Maria Hartley University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Hartley, Maria, "Indebted: Cultural Implications and the Role of Debt as Discipline on a Public College Campus. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2019. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5772 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Maria Hartley entitled "Indebted: Cultural Implications and the Role of Debt as Discipline on a Public College Campus." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Sociology. Jon Shefner, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Michelle Brown, Michelle Christian, Judah Schept Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Indebted: Cultural Implications and the Role of Debt as Discipline on a Public College Campus A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Maria Bordt Hartley December 2019 Copyright © 2019 by Maria Bordt Hartley All rights reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to thank my parents, Jean and Willy Bordt, for mostly letting me figure it out on my own. I wouldn’t have thrived any other way. I’d also like to thank my husband, Andrew Hartley, for supporting me throughout this entire process and making me have fun once in a while. Thank you to Emilia Hartley for being quiet when I needed to write and calming me down when I was stressed out—you are absolutely the most magical child I have ever known! Thank you to Rocky Hartley for being a good dog, giving excellent cuddles to motivate me, and sometimes letting me cry into your fur. Finally, thank you to my dearest and oldest friends, Melissa, Kate, and Ashby, for supporting me this entire process from afar, and showing me the compassion and companionship to motivate me throughout. Professionally, I’d like to thank the absolute best dissertation committee I could have ever hoped for: Drs. Jon Shefner, Michelle Brown, Michelle Christian, and Judah Schept. You all have been in my corner from day one and helped coach me into the scholar I am today, which I know was not always easy. Thank you to my former students Peyton Burnham, Karyce Garcia, and Noé Monárrez for helping me in various stages of this project with recruitment efforts, ideas, and general organization. Thank you to Dr. Holly Green for being a great member of my cohort, helping me grow alongside you as a scholar, and being a great resource for brainstorming. Thank you to our administrative staff, Shirley Martin and Nancy Loftis for always making me laugh and helping me whenever possible. iii ABSTRACT Student loan debt has quickly become a social problem that continues to affect both students and economic prospects for the future. My dissertation addresses the question of how political ideologies have informed the shift in societal engagement with public universities, while concurrently making higher education both a necessity and a problem of personal responsibility. I also examine the ways in which both debt and the current nature of public higher education have impacted student’s ability to engage in a democratic society, and how they navigate the changing arrangements in state support for public education. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One Globalization, Debt, and Social Mobility ...................................................... 1 Chapter Two Higher Education and the American Dream ............................................... 19 Chapter Three Research Methods ..................................................................................... 40 Chapter Four Ideological Impacts on University Students ............................................... 50 Chapter Five Debt Relationships ...................................................................................... 81 Chapter Six Prestige, Privilege, and Culture .................................................................. 110 Chapter Seven Intersectional Oppression and The University ....................................... 138 Chapter Eight Modes of Resistance ................................................................................ 175 Chapter Nine Conclusion and Discussion ....................................................................... 195 List of References ........................................................................................................... 207 Vita .................................................................................................................................. 217 v CHAPTER ONE GLOBALIZATION, DEBT, AND SOCIAL MOBILITY Introduction Now, more than ever, it is important to examine the social implications of debt in the United States. Recent reports have indicated that U.S. household debt is at an all-time high; by the end of 2017, total household debt exceeded 13 trillion dollars (T.Kim 2018). Though the bulk of this debt is attributed to mortgage balances, categories such as student, auto, and credit card debt have also increased. A closer look at the data indicates that student loans are currently the most likely of the above categories to be considered “delinquent,” or 90 days or more past due (Center for Microeconomic Debt 2018). In a footnote, the report also mentions that these figures regarding student loan debt are likely understated, as loans in deferment, forbearance, or in a grace period are not accounted for in these figures. The report goes on to state that “among loans in the repayment cycle delinquency rates are roughly twice as high” (2018). For context, the delinquency rate of student loan debt has hovered around 10% since the first quarter of 2012, according to this report. Given that the most recent data has indicated student loan debt to be the most likely type of debt to be in default for the last 5 years, it is both timely and pertinent to examine this phenomenon. Other social scientists have also noted the social significance of student debt in particular. Andrew Ross, in his book entitled Creditocracy and the Case for Debt Refusal notes that “the main reasons for the unsustainable growth of debt- 1 financed consumption have been the rising costs of education and healthcare, combined with stagnant income [and] no serious “fix” [or] government program of personal debt write-down has emerged in response” (2013: 70). This lack of serious government intervention has created a very real issue that affects even those who have never attended college. As Ross later points out, “[e]very dollar that goes to the bankers for debt service is one fewer dollar spent on goods and services in the real economy” (2013: 71). This is worrisome for everyone who relies on consumer spending to fund their wage labor. With memories of the Great Recession in the not-so-distant past, I found this topic compelling enough to structure my dissertation research around it. Through this project, I discovered that the modern university has been subjected to cultural messages which deeply affected the students that work and study here. These, coupled with their own experiences with student debt, have normalized this process through which state responsibility has waned in relation to the funding of higher education. As a result, students within the public university have become subject to an increasing level of social control that threatens the efficacy of higher education and the ability of these students to engage with and take part in the democratic process. It is important to note that, like many social conditions, student loan debt is not something that appeared overnight. The initial emergence of consumer debt which started in post- war America would set the stage for the later surge in student loan debt. Historically, this is important to understanding that the changing nature of how we pay for everyday items has directly influenced our ability to accept the logic of using debt as a means of paying for education as well. 2 Consumer Debt: A Brief History Credit cards as we know them today did not come into existence until after World War I; these were usually tied to a hotel chain, department store, or an oil company. George Ritzer, in his book entitled Expressing America, details the history of the credit card from its inception in post-war America. What we now know as revolving credit (i.e. the ability to charge purchases and only pay back a portion, while the remaining balance collects interest) began in the 1930s. Eventually, these cards morphed into the now ubiquitous universal credit cards, which allow consumers to make purchases anywhere, not just with said hotel chain, department store, or the like. Ritzer notes “[i]ssuers of universal

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