Another Threatened Termination
Clark, Stephen
From: Berkeley Istvan S [isb...@louisiana.edu]
Sent: 21 April 2009 03:34
Dear All,
Late last week (which was also our Spring break), we learned that our Board of
Regents is considering terminating the Philosophy major, here at The
University of Louisiana at Lafayette. A Committee of the Regents meet at 1pm
on Wednesday this week (the 22nd) and the immediate termination of the
Philosophy program is on the agenda. They propose making philosophy a mere
service program.
The reason this action is being considered is because of the small number of
philosophy majors graduating from our program. This was an issue several years
ago, has been addressed and our numbers are now steadily rising. Indeed, a few
years ago a similar threat to the program arose, but was not acted upon,
because the Board of Regents deemed a Philosophy program to be essential for a
Doctoral II University. Now, it appears that they have changed their minds.
The Board of Regents Committee Agenda for their meeting can be found at
http://www.regents.state.la.us/Board/Agenda/2009/04/aacomm.htm. The staff
comments can be found under Item III “Staff Recommendations Relative to the
Review of Select Low-Completer Programs”; the Philosophy program is discussed
on p. 71, (p. 93 of the .pdf).
The current situation is troubling for a number of reasons. First, the Regents
staff report that,
"...one cannot help but recognize that Philosophy as an essential
undergraduate program has lost some credence among students. This is reflected
in decreasing numbers not only in this program, but others across the
country.” (p. 72/ p. 95 of the .pdf).
Unfortunately, the claims here do not accord with the evidence. To cite a
single example, *The New York Times*, a year ago ran an article describing the
recent increases in philosophy enrollments (see
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/education/06philosophy.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Philosophy&st=nyt&oref=slogin). It is also strange how the Regents staff have some kind of 'privileged access' to “credence among students”.
A second puzzling feature about this decision is that it cannot be motivated
by cost factors. Our philosophy program is one of the most efficient programs
on our campus and the potential savings are, at most, a few thousand dollars.
The final reason that this proposed termination of our Philosophy major is
worrisome, is due to the fact that it throws some uncertainty into the future
of the PHILOSOP mailing list. If they succeed in downgrading our program, then
the activities that will continue to be supported are unclear. It is perhaps a
strange irony that the two Philosophy programs in the world which host major
mailing lists, with PHILOSOP here, and PHILOS-L at Liverpool, should both come
under attack within a month or so of each other.
We are fortunate that our university administration appears to be supportive
of the Philosophy program. The Regents are the ultimate authority, though. For
these reasons then, may I politely suggest that the Board of Regents be made
aware that their assessment of philosophy, as a declining academic discipline,
is incorrect. Any other related thoughts might also be useful. Probably the
best method of doing this is to send messages to Dr. Sally Clausen, who is the
Commissioner of Higher Education. Her e-mail address is
scla...@uls.state.la.us. The last time they tried to take away our major, we
were able to generate a petition with over 1,500 signatures from people around
the State of Louisiana. This time we do not have the time to organize such an
effort. So, support from philosophers around the world would be very much
appreciated. However, as the time is short, please act as soon as you can.
Istvan Berkeley.
Istvan S. N. Berkeley Ph.D
Philosophy and Cognitive Science E-mail: ist...@louisiana.edu
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
P.O. Box 43770 Tel: +1 337 482-6807
Lafayette, LA 70504-3770 Fax: +1 337 482-5002
USA http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~isb9112
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