Are you kidding me? University board chairs and college officials justify fat salaries while faculty and students are starving? This is not only unconscionable business practice, it’s intentional economic injustice that’s killing the American dream. Enough is enough: fight exploitation.

Here’s a holiday story that is all too familiar for faculty and students: poverty. While some at the top are cozy, nestled with their loved ones by the fire, sipping champagne and exchanging gifts, the majority of us are on pins and needles, stretching the last dollar on discount Top Ramen, sleepless at night wondering what to pawn to cover the water bill. That isn’t right, but it is reality.

Here’s what they say:

University board chairs and college officials defended how much they pay their leaders, arguing that industry pressures and the unique demands on their specific chief executives necessitated significant compensation. Several chairmen echoed the same point: High-level compensation reflected high-level performance.

Who are they fooling, and what does this line of reasoning say about the commitment to university values and the mission to educate for freedom and success? This is a slap in the face for faculty who are required to perform the core tasks of education and research. Faculty are sick of being gamed, and students are the benefactors of debt, to the tune of $1.4 trillion and growing. What type of leader justifies squeezing faculty and students for profit? A greedy leader whose race to the bottom McDonald’s business model paradigm is feed the rich and bleed the poor.

The reason education is great is because it is a public not a private good. Our public universities and community colleges should stop acting like the proprietary school sector, open for business while trading on ideas. Or as I say in a previous post: “The rich are getting richer and schools appear to be a front for what Malcolm Gladwell calls: ‘the core money management business.’” We’re witnessing high-level sophistry, alright; let’s reflect on that.

We’ve seen how for-profit schools deceive students and game the system, and to think that regulations that are in place to prevent fraud, deceptive marketing, and unreasonable student debt may be rolled back while some at the top make obscene financial gains threatens to diminish the quality and the state of American higher education. President-elect Trump’s two paragraph plan for education promises “relief from U.S. Department of Education regulations that inhibit innovation.” If innovation means settling a $25 million Trump University fraud case, American education faces moral bankruptcy. But, hey! It’s wide open for business and student “customers” are sucker punched into debt financing the American dream for a sip of that champagne.

Faculty and students need to exercise resilience and resistance against the corruption of our cherished public institutions, and that means fighting exploitative business practices that benefit the few at the expense of the many. It’s time to be courageous, not bullied and commodified. It’s time to fight exploitation. Are you in the fight? Get in formation.