Budget Cuts
Philosophers in Administrative Positions
A few months ago during a discussion here about the demand for philosophers, the importance of philosophers in high-level administrative roles came up.
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Here’s the relevant bit:
One thing we should do is encourage universities and colleges to better promote the distinctive value of philosophy and the study of the liberal arts more broadly. But how do we get universities to take up the mission of sending that message? What you need are people in positions of power who care about sending that message. That’s us… And so it would serve philosophy well if more philosophers took up administrative positions at the colleges and universities. We don’t need philosopher kings, but philosopher deans and associate deans, philosopher provosts, and philosopher university presidents would be helpful.
Perhaps it would be good to have a running list of philosophers in these roles. For one thing, it’s a bit of profession-wide recognition for taking up a potentially valuable position. It can be beneficial for philosopher-administrators to be able to easily find out about each other. The list could also be useful as a resource for philosophers considering moving into administrative positions. And it could help us figure out whether having philosophers in administrative positions is actually good for philosophy at those institutions (and perhaps more broadly).
So let’s gather this information. What we’re looking for are philosophers in college- or university-wide administrative roles. If you know of any, add their name, title, and institution in the comments, with a link to their university page. I’ll start with a few names to get a list going. Periodically, I’ll move names provided in the comments to the list in the post itself.
Thanks.
Philosophers Currently in College- or University-Wide Administrative Positions
- Christa Acampora, Dean of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia
- Lanier Anderson, Senior Associate Dean for the Humanities and Arts, Stanford University
- William Bechtel, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Personnel, School of Arts and Humanities, UC San Diego
- Rufus Black, Vice Chancellor, University of Tasmania
- Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Université de Montréal
- Samantha Brennan, Dean of Arts, University of Guelph
- Jonathan Cohen, Associate Dean of Academic Personnel, School of Arts and Humanities, UC San Diego
- Grant Cornwell, President, Rollins College
- Ann Cudd, President, Portland State University
- Tim Crane, Pro-Rector, Central European University, Vienna
- Shannon Dea, Dean of Arts, University of Regina
- John DeGioia, President, Georgetown University
- Karen Detlefsen, Vice Provost for Education, University of Pennsylvania
- Susan Dodds, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research and Industry Engagement)
- William C. Dudley, President, Washing & Lee University
- Saul Fisher, Associate Provost, Mercy University
- Jennifer Frey, Dean of the Honors College, University of Tulsa
- Tamar Gendler, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Yale University
- Brie Gertler, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Virginia
- Peter Graham, Associate Dean of the UC Education Abroad Program, UC Riverside
- Andrew Hamilton, Associate Vice Provost for Student Success, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, UNC Greensboro
- Sean Kelly, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Harvard University (beginning July 1st)
- Tim Kenyon, Acting Provost, Brock University
- John I. Jenkins, President, University of Notre Dame
- Sam Levey, associate dean of Arts and Sciences, Dartmouth College
- Tiziana Lippiello, Rector, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
- Alice MacLachlan, Vice Provost and Dean of Grad Studies, York University
- Dean Moyar, Vice Dean for the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University
- Danielle Poe, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, University of Dayton
- Agustin Rayo, Dean of Arts and Humanities, MIT
- James Sage, Associate Provost, Southern Utah University
- Alfred B. Santos, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, Holy Angel University
- Debra Satz, Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
- Andrew Schroeder, Associate Dean of the Faculty for Research, Claremont McKenna College
- Brian J. Shanley, President, St. John’s University
- Lisa Shapiro, Dean of Arts, McGill University
- Eric Smaw, Special Assistant to the Provost for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Rollins College
- Scott Tanona, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Kansas State University
- Matthias Vorwerk, Provost, University of Dallas
- Margaret Watkins, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Providence College
- Daniel Weinstock, Associate Dean for Research, McGill University
- Simon Wigley, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Bilkent University
- Andrea Woody, Dean of Social Sciences, University of Washington
- Frédéric Worms, Director, École Normale Supérieure
(The list will be updated periodically. If you notice an outdated or mistaken entry, please let us know.)
The post Philosophers in Administrative Positions first appeared on Daily Nous.
Does Cutting Philosophy Help A University’s Budget?
“More than a year after its faculty cuts, enrollment at Emporia State has fallen 12.5 percent even though enrollment at other public institutions in the state rose 2 percent.”
That’s David C.K. Curry, professor of philosophy at SUNY Potsdam (where the philosophy major program was eliminated last year), writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Emporia State is another university that recently cut its philosophy department and laid off faculty across the humanities (previously).
Professor Curry recounts the problems with how philosophy and other programs were cut at Potsdam, and discusses the trend of making such cuts at various colleges and universities.
A look at institutions that have cut philosophy programs does not provide evidence that doing so helps with undergraduate enrollment. While some real research on this would be welcome (APA?), I looked at five US schools that cut philosophy in 2022 or earlier—Baker University, Cabrini University, Carthage College, University of Nebraska-Kearney, and Western Oregon University—and at all of them, undergraduate enrollment is lower now than it was before they cut philosophy. (Of course, it is possible be that the enrollment declines, while continuing, have slowed—I didn’t check that.)
Combined with the relatively low costs typical of philosophy departments and the service teaching they tend to do, it seems unlikely that cutting philosophy programs does much to benefit college and university budgets.
And all of this is leaving aside other problems with these kinds of cuts. As Professor Curry notes, they play into the misconceptions that “the only justifiable purpose for higher education is to get people jobs” and that “one can’t get a good-paying job with a degree in philosophy, art history, French, sculpture, or dance.”
He says:
The liberal-arts model promotes education, not just for career but also for citizenship and life… Common sense says that gutted public institutions are probably not particularly attractive to prospective students and their parents. But perhaps these cuts will have the financial benefits the administrators, consultants, and legislators are gambling on. Maybe once the immediate outrage calms down, enrollments will rebound. But at what cost will that possibility of success come?
You can read Professor Curry’s essay here (ungated version here).
The post Does Cutting Philosophy Help A University’s Budget? first appeared on Daily Nous.
SUNY Fredonia Administration Approves Proposal to Cut Philosophy
Last December, Stephen Kolison, president of the State University of New York at Fredonia, proposed cutting 13 programs at the school, including philosophy. Last week, the proposal was approved.
The cuts are intended to save money, though it is unclear how much money will be saved by eliminating the philosophy major program at the school.
According to the Democrat & Chronicle, the degree programs to be terminated are:
- B.A. Visual Arts and New Media, Art History
- B.A. French
- B.A. French: Adolescence Education
- B.S. Industrial Management
- B.S. Mathematics: Middle Childhood
- B.A. Philosophy
- B.A. Sociology
- B.A. Spanish
- B.A. Spanish: Adolescence Education
- B.F.A. Visual Arts and New Media, Ceramics
- B.F.A. Visual Arts and New Media, Photography
- B.F.A. Visual Arts and New Media, Sculpture
- B.S.Ed. Early Childhood
The program closures will take place in June, though courses in many of the affected areas will continue to be taught.
It is not currently known how many faculty will lose their positions as part of the plan.
Nor is it clear how the elimination of the philosophy major will intersect with the ongoing academic freedom case of Stephen Kershnar, a philosophy professor at Fredonia who had been barred from campus following his appearance on a podcast during which he made controversial remarks about the morality of adult-child sex.
Related: Philosophy Chairs at All SUNY Campuses Come to the Defense of Fredonia Dept.
The post SUNY Fredonia Administration Approves Proposal to Cut Philosophy first appeared on Daily Nous.
Kent Administration Approves Proposal to Cut Philosophy
Last summer, and again this past February, the administration of the University of Kent proposed cutting its philosophy program (see here). It has now decided to implement that proposal.
Simon Kirchin (Leeds, formerly at Kent), shares news from the Kent Department of Philosophy:
Further to previous announcements of plans, the University of Kent has decided to close its Department of Philosophy. It will take no new students from now on. Existing students will be ‘taught out’ across the next two academic years. The University has made provision for a (very) small amount of fte to carry out teaching from 2024-2026.
As was noted in previous posts, the decision was not based on the poor performance of the Department or its philosophers:
This is not on the grounds of quality: the philosophy department was ranked 3rd in the UK for overall student satisfaction in the most recent national student survey, and 5th in the UK in terms of GPA in the most recent research assessment (2nd for quality of research outputs)
Philosophers at Kent “are actively looking for posts elsewhere.”
The post Kent Administration Approves Proposal to Cut Philosophy first appeared on Daily Nous.
“Purely vocational approach is embarrassingly out of touch”
Columbia College Chicago is facing a budget constraints and reportedly there are talks about addressing them by cutting programs in the liberal arts and sciences, and focusing more on career-based programs.
[Alexandra Goncharova, “Running with Scissors”]
Stephen Asma, who has taught at the school for over 25 years, has published an op-ed against such cuts. The piece is worth sharing, as it makes points that are relevant to the situations at some other schools.
He writes:
Currently, there is a disheartening movement afoot to shrink liberal arts and sciences curriculum to save money and close a budget shortfall. But students cannot just learn about game design and digital editing, and not learn about Islam, China, the history of slavery, logic or writing. That purely vocational approach is embarrassingly out of touch with what students need. If our academic core is cut too much, then the college will reap what it sows. Our future students will devolve into shallow careerists who risk becoming outdated in a few years because of rapidly changing tech innovations. Without liberal arts, students will lack the cultural awareness and critical thinking skills to adapt to and understand the fast-changing job markets of the future. They’ll also lack the social, cultural and historical knowledge to be active citizens in a democracy.
Columbia College Chicago is a unique vortex of creativity. But how creative and innovative will Columbia be if anti-intellectual forces at the college gut the core? There is no creativity without critical thinking and no critical thinking without creativity…
In an era when media, politics, and technology all converge to lock us into information bubbles and dogmatic silos, we need to recommit to a curriculum that breaks down walls and nudges people out of their comfort zones. The liberal arts do that –strengthening our sense of community and tolerance with those who are different from us. Our students will shape the images and narratives of the future, and we need to give them the tools to do this creative work with empathy and responsibility.
The full essay is at The Columbia Chronicle.
Related: The Demand for Philosophers.
The post “Purely vocational approach is embarrassingly out of touch” first appeared on Daily Nous.
Philosophy in Wisconsin: St. Norbert College & UW-Milwaukee-Waukesha
The two tenure-track assistant professors in the department of philosophy at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin were among 12 faculty at the school informed last week that they’d be losing their jobs at the end of this term. And just yesterday the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee announced it would be closing its Waukesha campus.
The cuts at St. Norbert are part of an attempt by the administration to close a $5 million deficit blamed on an enrollment decline, the Green Bay Press Gazette reports.
Philosophers Jaime Edwards and Sydney Keough, both untenured assistant professors, will be losing their jobs.
The termination of their employment is effective at the end of the current term.
Elsewhere in Wisconsin, roughly 45 faculty at the Waukesha campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee were told yesterday they’d be out of a job at the end of Spring 2025, as the campus is closing. It will be the fifth University of Wisconsin branch campus to close recently.
Philosophers Timothy Dunn, Dean Kowalski, Tait Szabo—all tenured—will be losing their jobs.
According to UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, “there simply weren’t enough students to sustain a two-year campus in Waukesha.”
UPDATE: Professor Szabo of UW-Milwaukee-Waukesha, writes that he has sent Chancellor Mone the following questions:
Wis. Stat. s. 36.22(12) (and Regent Policy Doc. 20-24.II.A) covers Alternative Appointments in case of program discontinuance. Where tenured CGS faculty are qualified to teach courses in the institution currently covered by non-tenured adjuncts, will tenured CGS faculty be retained and appointed to those courses? Failure to do so not only would set a dangerous precedent that should worry all tenured faculty at UWM as well as anyone in academia who may consider accepting tenure-track or tenured employment at UWM, but it would also arguably be in violation of Wisconsin statutes and Regent policy.
Regent Policy Doc. 20-24.II.C-F requires that layoffs or termination of faculty members due to program changes proceed through a faculty committee appointed for that purpose (which does not apply to CGSTT, as that was not its charge) and F-I require a report to the Board of Regents and approval by the Board. None of this has occurred, so isn’t it premature to send notices of termination to tenured faculty (which is covered under part J, after all those other steps)?
The College of General Studies (CGS) contains several programs: First-Year Bridge, Pre-Engineering, the UW Flexible Option, Continuing Education, Online, and the AAS Degree. In fact, the 2023 Washington County Work Group found that only 17% of students enrolled at UWM at Washington County completed the Associate’s Degree. The Chancellor announced only the discontinuance of the Associate’s Degree, but not the other CGS programs. No CGS faculty are specifically appointed to the Associate’s Degree program. Therefore, is it not the case that laying off tenured CGS faculty by appealing to a program discontinuance would constitute a misapplication of Wisconsin statute and Regent policy?
The post Philosophy in Wisconsin: St. Norbert College & UW-Milwaukee-Waukesha first appeared on Daily Nous.
Manhattan College Betrays Faculty
Don’t take a job at Manhattan College, says Manhattan College.
At least that is the message conveyed by the decision of the school’s administration, led by president Milo Riverso, to violate the reasonable expectations of tenured faculty regarding job protection and termination notice.
Last month, it was reported that the school was planning on shutting down several programs, including its philosophy major.
The American Philosophical Association (APA) sent a letter to Riverso and other administrators raising various objections to the program cuts and recently announced faculty layoffs.
The college went ahead with program cuts.
Now, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports more on those layoffs:
The staffing reductions, which are part of a planned restructuring to alleviate a financial deficit and which will eliminate 20 majors and minors, violate the college’s faculty handbook and generally understood norms of tenure, job security, and shared governance, according to professors interviewed by The Chronicle.
This latest chapter in a continuing conflict at the Lasallian Catholic institution began on January 12, when 19 tenured faculty members and four nontenured scholars were informed in short meetings that they were being laid off (two of the tenured faculty members’ layoffs were later revoked by administrators). The tenured professors were told that their last day of employment would be June 15, 2024, and that they’d receive severance pay through January 12, 2025; the nontenured faculty members’ contracts would end on June 15, 2025.
An appendix to the severance agreement, a copy of which was shared with The Chronicle, says that employees were identified for layoffs based on “an objective methodology in furtherance of the college’s financial budgeting requirements, enrollment, academic and programmatic needs, streamlining, centralization, and consolidation.” But faculty members said that justification was unclear and inaccurate, and that Manhattan administrators had declined to provide further explanation or share data on which the layoff decisions had been made.
According to faculty, the layoffs were “a totally unilateral, top-down decision” by the institution’s president.
The Chronicle notes that the college has not declared “financial exigency” and so the layoffs violate the norms of tenure protection:
Both the originally announced layoff plans and the decisions made last month contravene commonly held understandings of tenure, popularized in 1940 by a joint statement of the American Association of University Professors and the American Association of Colleges and Universities. That statement holds that tenured faculty members can be terminated only for cause or in the case of bona fide financial exigency. (The college has not declared financial exigency, and although it has repeatedly cited a large deficit, it has not specified the size.) Meanwhile, Manhattan’s faculty handbook provides that tenured faculty members, and tenure-track faculty members who have been at the college for at least two years, be given at least one academic year’s notice of termination, the professors said.
Further, it is unclear whether the program cuts and layoffs will actually help the college:
But those changes aren’t likely to immediately improve Manhattan’s balance sheet, according to the bond-rating agency Fitch Ratings, which downgraded the college’s outlook from stable to negative this month.
They certainly won’t help the college’s reputation.
The post Manhattan College Betrays Faculty first appeared on Daily Nous.
Manhattan College May Eliminate Philosophy
Philosophy is one of 10 undergraduate majors that administrators at Manhattan College, a Catholic college in New York, have proposed eliminating.
According to The Quadrangle, college president Milo Riverso announced in an email last month: “To better align our resources with these efforts, we have made the decision to eliminate a limited number of programs with low enrollments. All students currently enrolled in an affected program will be supported to graduate on-time.”
The programs to be cut are:
Undergraduate Majors: art history, Camino, E3MC, environmental studies, French, labor studies, nuclear medicine technology, philosophy, religious studies, urban studies.
Undergraduate Minors/Concentrations: Arabic, theater, Chinese, critical race and ethnicity studies, cultural anthropology, digital arts and humanities, film studies, Italian, Japanese, medieval studies, social services, women and gender studies, ethics.
Graduate Programs: mathematics and data analytics, school building leadership, accounting.
Regarding philosophy specifically, The Quadrangle reports that the major was growing in size and is part of a core curriculum for all liberal arts students:
“Philosophy is one of the strongest, fastest-growing programs at Manhattan College,” an anonymous faculty member confirmed. “Students seek out Catholic colleges for their training in religion, philosophy, and ethics. Even as the college as a whole has lower enrollment, we have over 20% more students taking philosophy classes this year than last year. We are one of the only programs to have zero low-enrolled courses and to have met every class size metric.”
Philosophy is yet another program that will not save the college money to take off of the roster.
“Closing the philosophy major and minor does not save any money,” the faculty member wrote in an email. “We teach so many required classes, like Roots, Ethics, Logic, Critical Thinking, and Faith and Reason. Enough classes will still run for there to be a major or minor—students will just be banned from having that degree on their diploma and résumé and the benefits that come from an official program, such as membership in the national honor society.”
Reportedly, the cuts were proposed “without consulting the curriculum committees or faculty chairs.”
(via Joel Pust)
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Philosophy at Kent Threatened (again) (updated)
Imagine a major university financially mismanaged to such a degree that its administration is desperate enough to suggest cutting its philosophy program as a solution.
That we’ve seen cases of this happening before may dull us to how bizarre it sounds, but I think it’s a good idea to try to recapture its strangeness, especially given the centrality of philosophy to the mission of a university, and how relatively little it costs to keep a philosophy program running.
KentOnline reports that the administration at the University of Kent has proposed cutting philosophy and eight other programs, and laying off 58 faculty and staff, as a way to address “financial problems”:
The university is facing a series of major problems at the same time including a drop in foreign students applying since Brexit and its ranking fall by 26 places over the last eight years, according to the Complete University Guide. Added to this, bosses have battled to manage finances—constructing buildings in Medway they’re now moving out of—while income from capped tuition fees has fallen due to inflationary pressures and dwindling applications. KentOnline also understands plans involving the university to transform a former police station into a multi-million-pound creative hub are being looked at.
Philosophy at Kent was threatened last summer, when the administration revealed that its earlier commitment to not pursue forced layoffs (compulsory redundancies), made to avert a faculty strike, was a lie.
Discussing the cuts on X/Twitter, philosophy professor Jon Williamson writes:
We perform well on all measures, including student recruitment. But smaller subjects have less clout and are easiest to cut. Help us shout out our value to the uni!…
We are being cut to fund the expansion of subjects that attract more international students. But it’s not too late to save us.
He recommends that those interested in speaking up on behalf of the philosophy program at Kent get in touch with vice-chancellor Karen Cox, whose email is k.cox@kent.ac.uk.
(via Jonathan Birch)
UPDATE (2/8/24): A petition in support of philosophy and other threatened fields at Kent can be signed here.
The post Philosophy at Kent Threatened (again) (updated) first appeared on Daily Nous.
Potsdam & the Future of Liberal Arts Education
The administration at the State University of New York (SUNY) Potsdam decided earlier this year to discontinue its philosophy major, and has now moved to cutting faculty.
The SUNY Potsdam Philosophy page has been updated with the following:
It is too late for philosophy, or the liberal arts in any meaningful sense, at SUNY Potsdam. Our Provost has finally admitted that they plan to retrench faculty in discontinued programs. We were told, and I quote, “with the discontinuation of the program, the plan is to decrease the number of faculty by 1.” (Interim Provost Alan Hersker, 12/05/2023). So no hope here at Potsdam. But the disease spreads. SUNY Fredonia has released an eerily familiar plan to cut 13 programs. [see here]
Nonetheless, there is still hope for other public institutions of higher learning if we can spread the word. What is happening at SUNY Potsdam (and WVU and SUNY Fredonia, among others) is just a sign of the times to come for public higher education. The sign is not a good one. A tide of forces threaten the future of liberal arts education in the U.S., but they go unacknowledged, and hence unaddressed.
The creator of the page aims to develop it into a forum for the sharing of information about “the confluence of forces shaping public higher education.” Check it out here.
The post Potsdam & the Future of Liberal Arts Education first appeared on Daily Nous.