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Here. (Earlier coverage.) Comments are open for those with more information, additional links, etc. Submit comments only once, they may take awhile to appear.
(Thanks to Zena Hitz for the pointer.)
I am the chair of the Philosophy & Religion Department at Ithaca College, writing with an update about the cuts as they affect our department. The good news is that our department was not eliminated, and nor were any of our majors or minors eliminated. But this collective good fortune comes at a steep personal cost for one of us: the position of one non-tenure-stream colleague who has taught at IC for eleven years is slated for elimination in May 2022. So, despite our collective sense of relief as a department, we are grieving the future loss of a valued and talented long-time colleague.
Across the college, i.e. beyond just our department, the proposed cuts have laid bare the hierarchical nature of the academy. No tenure-eligible or tenured faculty are losing their jobs, fortunately, but a great many faculty on non-tenure-stream contracts are losing their jobs (either in May 2021 for those who are now just in their first year at IC; and in May 2022 for others, like our colleague in Philosophy).
The cuts are quite draconian in scale, as Brian’s headline states. All told, 86 full-time positions out of 542 are being eliminated. So, over 15% of faculty, i.e. somewhere between 1-in-6 and 1-in-7 positions, are being cut. (The administration has also announced that they plan to shrink the faculty by a further 24 positions in the next few years by sharply reducing the level of replacement hires in the event of voluntary retirements.)
I can imagine that perhaps *some* level of faculty downsizing is financially warranted, both in light of the crisis triggered by the pandemic and in light of shrinking college-age youth populations in the U.S. Northeast. But I do worry that the scale of these cuts is an overreaction to these challenges, and may very well do more harm than good, even in the long run.
My undergrad alma mater. Sorry to hear this.
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