President Bernie Machen has proposed that UF’s Ph.D program in philosophy be eliminated (along with Ph.D program in Romance Languages and Literatures with concentration in French and Ph.D. program in German) to help balance the university’s budget. Here is the same information presented in .pdf format; the relevant information is on page 7.
UPDATE (Vitz, 05/06/08): Professor Jamil (Miami Dade College) has created a petition so that we can gather signatures to send to President Machen at the University of Florida.
UPDATE (Vitz, 05/09/08): The petition has received, roughly, 1300 signatures in three days.
The Leiter Report takes note here. The Chronicle of Higher Education takes note here.
Jesse, this is stunning! How likely is the proposed budget to be approved, and am I reading this correctly — will 24 tenured/tenure-track faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences (alone) lose their positions?
Upon initial review of the budget cuts, it seems striking to me that most of the reductions come from academics and not from administration. All administrative cuts are mere fractions and require very few lay-offs. And I see zero cuts to Athletics, Greek Student Organizations, and other such related areas.
I don’t know if the faculty at UF are unionized, and if their faculty union is influential. But this is an indication, to me, that faculty absolutely must unionize, and, furthermore, take a more active role in the administration of their institutions. This is a time for faculty across the state to become more active, and I know I will be taking this issue to my union, especially as they negotiate our next contract.
I find the lack of interest, generally, that faculty have in administrative issues to be part and parcel of this whole problem. I think all of us, especially those of us who have been through graduate school, to look at the role of department administrators — department chairs and related individuals — and would probably agree that our chairs did not take an active role in administration. I know at my alma mater, I constantly witnessed (in multiple departments) support staff effectively doing a chair’s or director’s work. Faculty must become more administratively minded, we must care about these things if we expect to protect our own disciplines from the mentality that suggests academic institutions must be run as businesses.
Of course, I am not suggesting that state budget reductions are the fault of faculty members, but it seems to me that the increasingly growing divide between “faculty” and “administration” is partially responsible for the dramatic difference in budget cuts from the administrative side and the academic side. As a former administrator for a major university, I can assure anyone who asks me that an external audit of any university administration would reveal much unnecessary spending on behalf of administrators. Of course, with administrators calling all the shots, it is the responsibility of faculty to organize together and to actively call for a thorough review of administrative spending.
Einstein said, “I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and, also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field.” I think the next essential step for faculty — all across the state, not exclusively in Gainesville — to take is to actively support our peers by organizing and objecting to President Machen’s proposal, not just because their Philosophy department suffers, but because of all of the other cuts that their Liberal Studies faculty face. (I should also say I am particularly concerned about the cutting of funding to multicultural programs and disability services, and exactly what this suggests higher education is about.)
What happens to the currently enrolled UF Ph.D students?
I thought it was particularly interesting to note the President’s salary (in excess of 700k/year!) and that the President’s office and the Vice President/General Counsel’s office (I would bet my bar license that the General Counsel’s office could easily withstand a 6-figure cut) each took miniscule cuts of a few thousand $$ while the College of Arts/Sciences (generally the most important and comprehensive aspect of a university and its mission/purpose as I see it) led the way with 6mil in cuts….
Mark — I’ll let you know when I find out what happens to me (chuckle, gulp). I think anyone who’s in the program now or has been accepted will be permitted to finish. One important question that I believe has bearing on the possibility of students in such a position finishing their degress is what effect the budget developments will have on faculty membership and how changes in the faculty roster (if there are any) will affect the advising that a PhD student requires to make progress.
I echo Rico’s question: How likely is this to go through? If cutting the Phil PhD program and the other major Arts and Sciences cuts are preventable, as Sabrina suggests, and people are organizing efforts, I’d like to know what students not affiliated with UF can do to help out.
Note: There is a relevant update on Leiter’s blog from USF’s Phil Dept Chair.
Dr. Ariew’s comments are spot on. In total, the cutting out of a Ph.D. program is likely only to save the college something around $1 million a year, with a generous estimate. The savings will be entirely in faculty salaries and graduate student funding. Presumably, the department will still exist and thus continue to require the cost of regular administrative overhead (such as space, supplies, and support staff), and, furthermore, funding for M.A. students (provided that degree program continues). In fact, the cost of the program without Ph.D. (and possibly without M.A. students) is likely to increase, since, as Leiter points out, undergraduate enrollment in Philosophy classes is growing. Losing faculty and graduate students will require either additional faculty or external instructors, which will cost money, or cutting down availability of such courses, which prevents the institution from collecting students’ tuition. From a strategic perspective, this is not only a foolish one, but a move that does not seem financially sound.
I have created an online petition site that will allow us to collect signature to send to President Machen. I believe this is a good first step and that we should encourage faculty and students everywhere to sign.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/145/petition-to-president-machen-to-keep-philosophys-phd-program
Thank you for creating this petition.
Just signed the petition. This is ridiculous and infuriating - especially considering the lack of proportionality in these cuts.
Considering the seeming lack of critical thinking and reasoned discourse taking place in the public sphere these days, this just signals the poor direction we are heading. What have we come to when the hallmarks of liberal arts education are deemed expendable, while the salaries of administrators, etc. are allowed to balloon?
Unfortunately I can’t say that I am entirely surprised, after all the majority of the publicity for UF the past few years hasn’t come from the halls of the Philosophy department, but from a much more important area of the school: the sports complex.
I guess we should expect the Universities to echo the broader values of our culture and as (and if) Philosophy programs go the way of the Buffalo the shift will progress unchallenged.
So as to not end on such a cynical note, I hope that the petition is just the beginning of organized action against this decision.
~Q
I, too, hope to see more organized action on behalf of the department at UF, and want to let those from UF reading that despite hailing from a rival alma mater, I will lend as much support as possible to any effort the department makes. I hope that the overwhelming support — nearly 300 signatures in a few short hours, and hopefully more — serves as good motivation to those Gators present to further organize and defend their positions.
[...] the Florida Student Philosophy Blog has had some thoughtful commentary here. One should note the comments by Sabrina Jamil (see comment #3). She says that it is unusual [...]
I’m happy to report that there are over 600 signatures in the 24 hours since the petition was posted. Keep it up, folks!
That’s great! Here’s another update from Leiter’s blog:
http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/a-second-call-t.html
Jesse–or other UF readers/contributors–please keep us informed to the extent you are able.
Breaking News:
Nearly 900 philosophers may agree on something.
Some said it was impossible. Others said it was possible, just not in this world.
We hereby demonstrate both were incorrect.
QED!
(Rock on, petitioners.)
Funny…I was already rethinking my own position after I signed the petition
Ha!
Typical.
The petition is up to 1,000. (Number 1,000 was Jodi Geever-Ostrowsky. Yay her! Note conflict of interest in my name.)
Jodi is obviously the perfect instantiation of awesome-ness.
You made a wise decision.
In other news, our fine friends at Buffalo are showing support.
Might I suggest that readers stop clicking refresh on the petition and peruse the Buffalo blog to witness the sheer brilliance of those Buffalo philosophers.
http://buffalophilosophy.blogspot.com/2008/05/florida-graduate-program-cut.html
Here’s what I find especially perplexing about the situation: cutting the PhD program will save the university exactly zero dollars. The budget is exactly the same after this change. I’m not going to push this line with any higher-ups at the university as it may put thoughts in their heads (that might be a first), but it is extremely silly.
And, just so everyone knows, the department had over-performed by every metric set out by the administration. This cut seems to be completely arbitrary. There seems to me to be an effort to turn the flagship university in the state of Florida into a Vo-tech college.
Yes, it really is silly.
I would like to know the reasons people had for proposing to cut the PhD program, actually. Has anything like that been made public?
If students at UF organize anything and need help/support, post it here.
Well, we’ve been told to send letters to the Board of Trustees …
the most I’ve done is start a Facebook group to generate awareness.
We can probably count on a handful of letters from our own UF philosophy undergrads, but additional letters from other perspectives might be even more helpful.
Are there any faculty here or grad students who have come across UF Philosophy faculty and can write letters attesting to the department’s legitimacy ???
I can email the letters to a friend who is physically in Gainesville and can hand-deliver them to the Board of Trustees office.
(citizenkeane@gmail.com)
Oh, nice.
For undergrads writing letters, it is probably helpful to know that UF’s Phil PhD program is very well thought of in the discipline and the faculty are well-known and respected.
I’m looking at the petition right now—it’s at about 1,300—and I see names of well-known philosophers at prominent departments lending their support, as I have seen every time I glance at it.
Two I see now are Chomsky (MIT) and Sayre-McCord (UNC-Chapel Hill).
I’ve also seen Haslanger (MIT), Yablo (MIT), Mele (FSU), McKenna (FSU) and many, many others. To those not in the field (like administrators), this should serve as evidence that UF’s Philosophy Department is very much supported and respected by their peers.
Also on the petition, someone quoted Martha Nussbaum on liberal arts education in the comments section. (She has written a whole book on it and has some nice essays online about it, I believe, that are worth looking over for anyone who wishes to defend liberal arts education.)
In the class I TAed for this semester, the lead instructor ended the last day of lecture discussing the importance of liberal arts education and talking about the arguments different philosophers have given for cultivating important and distinctly human capacities. John Stuart Mill has a nice passage in Utilitarianism on this when he talks about lower and higher pleasures.
The lead instructor talked about how it is important for people to be able to cultivate capacities like reasoning well, and to be exposed to arts, literatures and the history of ideas. He made it a point discuss how various thinkers argued that not only is this important, it is vital that everyone be able to do these things and be exposed to these things—through education—via things like state schools. The picture was a rich one; an image of human beings as vibrant and possessing capabilities that can be developed to make a life textured, excellent and worth living.
In other courses I’ve been a part of, this is the first thing discussed in class, along with the questions ‘What is philosophy? And what do philosophers do?’
Clearly, I and many other philosophers/philosophy students are motivated by a love of philosophy and, in general, see philosophy as central to liberal arts education (and probably central to life).
But others may not be so moved. So in addition to the points I’ve tried to bring out here—and I welcome further points from others—it is important to note the questionable economics, as many have done here and elsewhere. It’s not clear this will save much, if any, money. And there appears to be many other things that could, in all probability, be trimmed back very easily without significant loss.
Another consideration to bring out might be how this would affect graduate students who are in the program now or people who have recently earned their PhD’s from UF’s Philosophy Department. Jesse mentioned possible disruption in graduate education and advising. It might also be important to think about how cutting a great program could result in the devaluation of the degrees people already hold.
These are just my off-the-cuff ideas that one could include in letters. I encourage others to weigh in on this (and write and send letters if you are so compelled).
Thank you, Jennifer, for making this effort.
Jennifer- There has been no reason provided to the department for the cut. I think they are hoping for a de facto budget cut. That is, I believe they are hoping faculty will leave of their own accord and then not be replaced. As to why they singled out philosophy is anyone’s guess.
Just a few years back, the department was being given big increases to hire faculty because the department’s performance had been deemed to be so good. In spite of the fact that the department’s performance has only improved since then, this is the second time this academic year that the department has been targeted for some sort of reductions due to budget cuts.
Clearly, this department, along with the rest of the humanities is in the sights of a few of the administration. Only those departments that are bringing in money in the form of contracts and grants seem to be safe in the current environment.
Thanks, Kevin.
De facto budget cut. Lovely.
I remember when the dept was getting increases for hires, actually.
Jennifer,
Please find a letter from me at the email address you’ve provided.
Jennifer- I have not received an email. Please send it again if you like. Thanks.
Are there any updates regarding the status of this proposal?
Kevin said:
“Only those departments that are bringing in money in the form of contracts and grants seem to be safe in the current environment.”
I think that there is only going to be more and more of this sort of ‘education as a bottom-line business enterprise’ nonsense for the foreseeable future.
A part of the problem, as I see it, is that you have lots and lots of MBAs running the show, and states that are feeling a budget pinch, given the economic failures and massive war debts of the federal gov’t, and when you put these to together, you get (ostensibly well-meaning) people who are highly motivated to trim the ‘fat’, and since none of these MBAs and administrators cannot fathom how in the world philosophy, classics, or comparative literature can be useful, then they must not be useful. And if they are not useful, then out they go.
By the way, it was this sort of trend in university modeling that I had firmly in mind when I was trying to calm the ballyhooing over how there was a supposed surge in undergrad philosophy enrollment (after the, I think terribly misleading, article about Rutgers and Cuny). The fact of the matter is that enrollment is trending down, and we are living in a vehemently anti-intellectual, anti-philosophical age.
C’est la vie.
Not sure how many are aware, but a revised version of the proposal has passed.
Although the Ph.D. program was not eliminated, admissions to the program are frozen until at least 2012. There is a 60 day window for additional changes to be made. More from the Gainesville Sun here: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080514/NEWS/383568383/1002/NEWS/UF_trustees_approve_budget_cuts_with_revisions_
This is disappointing, though not a total loss. From the outside, I’m not sure how this compromising compromise was achieved, but I suppose it is better than a total elimination of the program.
Best,
Sabrina
“Ignoratione rerum bonarum et malarum maxime hominum vita vexatur” - Cicero
Never mind what it means. Evidently, the president of UF doesn’t find that the youth of America needs to learn to understand it.
Sabrina- As I understand it, the faculty is, as we speak, trying to get the elimination changed to a suspension and should get some response to this soon. I’m not sure how much this change in terminology will make, but I think the hope is that it will be a first step in getting all of this taken off the table.
Since there is a lot of protestation and turmoil throughout the university over many of the budget cuts, it may be too much to hope that it will get entirely resolved any time soon. For the moment, there is no practical change in the department. So, if progress seems likely enough to keep faculty from moving post-haste and the decision is rescinded by Fall ‘09 there should be no real interruption in the department.
Of course, that’s a best case scenario. I would doubt if many of the faculty do not see this move, whether it goes through in the end or not, as an indication of the administration’s attitude about philosophy and leave regardless.
To aptaylor- I’m not sure about the national trend, but I can tell you that the number of philosophy majors at UF has been steadily trending upward for several years. Take a look at the local article that came out as a result of the Times article:
http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/04/09/news/campus/080409_philosophy.txt
Regardless of national trends, the department here has been performing well by every conceivable metric. That is what makes the current situation so distressing and perplexing. If there were problems with the department or if there was even some budget cut, then I could see why the move would be made. As it is, it really looks like there is a very disturbing mindset prevalent in the administration.