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Budget Crisis at Florida State University: Layoffs of Tenured Faculty in the Works?

Brian Leiter

There are a variety of documents collected here, though it's unclear how far-reaching the layoffs will be and whether Philosophy will be among the affected departments.  (My read of the materials suggests that tenured faculty at risk are in units that may be eliminated, and I see no indication that includes Philosophy.)   Any insight from those at FSU?  Philosophy at FSU has been a huge success story over the last dozen years, hopefully it will weather this crisis.

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8 responses to “Budget Crisis at Florida State University: Layoffs of Tenured Faculty in the Works?”

  1. Julie

    Please note that the California State University Chancellor is asking for two furlough days/month for all employees for the next year, in effect, a 10% pay reduction. It is expected that this will cut the budget shortfall by only half. The Chancellor has refused to promise that there will be no lay-offs if there are furloughs, but he did say that no campuses will be closed. For more information, please see the faculty union web site:
    http://www.calfac.org/headlines.html

    Information also is available on the Chancellor's web site:
    http://www.calstate.edu/executive/communications/employee-updates/CSU_Weekly_Update_6-12-09.shtml

    The University of California also is considering furloughs and/or paycuts, although no final decisions have been made:
    http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/21111
    http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2117

    Reply
  2. Craig

    I thought it worth noting that, based on page 2 of this document, http://president.fsu.edu/budget/pdf/BudgetReductionMajorRestructureTable.pdf it looks like there will be $1,600,000 in cuts to the Law School there.

    Reply
  3. Mark S

    Though it's only remotely tangential to the subject of this post, my favorite professor (philosophy) when I was in college (FSU, 1996-2000) died this week. There was a really enjoyable article of him posted in the local paper.

    http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20090617/NEWS01/906170315/1010/Donald+Hodges+followed+road+less+traveled

    For what it's worth, I don't think FSU replaced (in the strong sense of the word) the great professors I was fortunate to have in the 90's like David Gruender, Donald Hodges, Robert Beard, etc.

    Reply
  4. Christopher Pynes

    I want to reply to Mark S. about FSU not replacing Gruender, Hodges, and Beard — in the strong sense, whatever that is. I was at FSU from 1998 to 2003 and was a TA for Beard, published a paper with Hodges, and Gruender suggested the external reader for my dissertation. This period was a transition period for the department. Now each of these men were characters and fixtures at FSU, but Michael Ruse, Al Mele, Josh Gert, Piers Rawling, and David McNaughton were the first wave of replacements while I was there. Trust me there are characters in that list every bit a big as Beard and Hodges, and there is no question that the quality of philosophy by the new group is outstanding. Since then they have added even more high quality philosophers. Brian's claim that FSU has been a huge success story over the last 12 years is spot on. It is a great place to do philosophy, and I was lucky to be there during the transition and to know all the philosophers listed.

    I have no knowledge of the budget, but I would suspect the department leadership has worked hard to protect what they have grown over the years.

    Reply
  5. Timothy McWhirter

    Donald Hodges was quite a character. I remember taking a seminar on Anarchism from him that seemed to embody the topic. He was a living and breathing test of academic freedom. Much of what he said in person and wrote seemed like it had an implied middle finger pointed at someone.

    When I was at FSU Alan Mabe was the Chair. The idea that Professor Hodges actually ran that department at one point is an amazing thought. One of my students gave me a shirt with Chez Guevara's picture on it. I draped it over a chair in my office and called it the Chez Chair. This is what comes to mind when I think of Professor Hodges as Chair.

    I want to pass on my sympathies to his wife and family.

    Reply
  6. John Roberts

    The short answer to what's going to happen to FSU philosophy is that we don't yet know. So far nobody here has been laid-off but there are still many more layoffs coming across the university.

    Reply
  7. R. Clarke

    While John is right that we can't be certain at this point, I'd say it doesn't look as though Philosophy will lose any positions.

    Reply
  8. David McNaughton

    Thanks for the kind comments,everyone. As Randy has said, at present I think Philosophy are fairly safe, although money all round will be tight.

    Reply

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