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    The McMaster Department of Philosophy has now put together the following notice commemorating Barry: Barry Allen: A Philosophical Life Barry…

Rider University (in New Jersey) eliminates 13 majors (and faculty), including philosophy

Brian Leiter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM OCT. 30–SOME NEW INFO IN THE COMMENTS

What a disaster.  (Those who didn't read the relevant posts by Chris Pynes last week might take a look.)

(Thanks to Jonathan Kramnick and David Sackris for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  From a knowledgeable source (not a philosophy faculty member):

[The story] does not mention that a number of the faculty who are being fired have tenure (including — I believe but am not certain — a philosopher, and including some who have been at the school for decades).

The context for this story is troubling. The new president of the university started this past August. Today's announcement must have been in the works for weeks, at minimum; there's simply no way the president could come in and make a good faith effort at preserving faculty or departments before turning to the task of preparing to fire so many people. It's entirely plausible that he was brought in specifically to gut various departments. He claims the university is struggling financially and needs to cut costs. I'm not a member of the Rider chapter of the AAUP, but my understanding is that they disagree with that assessment. Although time is short, I'm sure the union will attempt to push back. I circulate this story in part because expressions of support from like-minded faculty at other institutions may help roll back these changes.

Comments are open for more information, details, ideas.

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5 responses to “Rider University (in New Jersey) eliminates 13 majors (and faculty), including philosophy”

  1. John Baker

    The tuition at Rider is around $38,000 for 9 months of study. Maybe the president and other administrators have a conscience. I say shut the philosophy program down. Let's hope there are many more to close in the coming years along with many graduate programs in philosophy. This won't entail fewer young people studying philosophy or less discussion in philosophy or less rigor in the discipline. But it will give us fewer young straddled with massive debt.

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  2. Anonymous

    Actually, killing the major and firing philosophy professors means precisely that fewer young people will study philosophy, especially if there are "many more" closings in the near future.

    This decision obviously has nothing to do with "conscience." The last president of Rider — a school with only about 4,000 undergraduate students — was making nearly $800,000/year, and one expects the new president to be in the same range. This is just union-busting at a small liberal arts college, designed at least in part to help protect the bloated salaries of high-level administrators.

    Because he's offered no limiting principle, John Baker's logic should extend to any reasonably expensive school that offers a philosophy major. Perhaps he has the luxury of teaching at a cheaper school, or one that is less likely to eliminate its philosophy faculty. Congratulations to John on his position of privilege.

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  3. Ken Taylor

    Don't be fooled by the sticker price of 38K for tuition. Probably very few students pay that. And that is one of the deep problems for colleges and universities like this. Rider admits something like 72 of all students who apply. But its yield on admitted is around 16%. That is typically of second and third tier liberal arts colleges around the country.

    Partly as a consequence they are in an absolutely fierce competition for students. You wouldn't know this because there is so much focus on the admissions rate race at "elite" colleges and university. But step below those elite institutions and you find a very different landscape. One thing that these colleges and universities do to help them be more competitive for desirable students is offer steep tuition discounts — i.e. "merit" aid. But the dirty little secret is is that they can't afford it. But they are caught in something of a bind. Without the substantial amounts doled out in aid, they stand no chance of attracting the students they most want. But if they do dole out the aid, they risk financial insolvency.

    The bottom line is that many liberal arts colleges are financially unsustainable. People who claim to be in the know predict that MANY will be closing their doors over the next 5-10 years — taking many academic jobs with them.

    It is also true that liberal arts colleges these days are very, very different from liberal arts colleges of an earlier day — partly due to the same set of factors. There are many, many more pre-professional and professional majors offered in these type of schools than there were in liberal arts colleges of any earlier day. Indeed, some of the small liberal arts colleges and universities are bastions of the liberal arts in name only.

    Don't know enough about this particular school to hazard a guess whether it will survive, but it seems clear that the kinds of things happening here are likely to be happening over the next several years at many more schools around the country.

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  4. Anonymous

    For those interested in updates on the situation, the Rider University Chapter of the AAUP posts periodic updates on negotiations to rescind the changes here: http://www.rideraaup.net/.

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  5. recent grad

    I really wish this case were receiving more attention from philosophers. Given current trends in higher education, it would seem likely that cases like Rider will become more and more common. I think it's imperative that prospective grad students–and grad students themselves–know what they're getting into when they enter a job market in which many jobs might disappear halfway through their careers.

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