Philanthrocapitalism, Neoliberalism, and the University

Munger Hall, a planned dormitory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was expected to house 4500 students in a single structure, with 94% of their rooms windowless. Designed and partially funded by philanthropist Charlie Munger, Munger Hall is a classic illustration of the hubris and power of philanthropy in the twenty-first century. For many donors, new ways of thinking about the ills of society and the optimal implementation of philanthropic benevolence impact the direction of their philanthropy and the process of gift-giving itself. For example, the importance of directly controlling all aspects of the gift as well as leveraging funds, assessing a return on investment, and cultivating new subjects are key features of contemporary philanthropy. Acceptance of this type of philanthropic intervention has increased due to the neoliberalization of higher education, alongside precipitous declines in state funding. While much of the scholarship on philanthrocapitalism has addressed the social and organizational impacts of large gifts, we emphasize the spatiality of the process, showing how the actual physical spaces of buildings and other forms of institutional infrastructure are often implicated in philanthropic gifts, with potential effects on the experiences and subjectivities of users. In higher education, these types of experiential effects can have wide-ranging consequences, operating to direct students and faculty toward or away from certain kinds of research opportunities or into particular forms of collaborations and social relationships and away from others. This article investigates these recent trends with an in-depth examination of Munger Hall.