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

Attack on philosophy and other arts & sciences disciplines accelerates at SUNY Potsdam

Brian Leiter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM OCTOBER 4:   The information here has been updated, and the news is not good for philosophy (and several other units).

MOVING TO FRONT from October 2:  The Potsdam philosophers are asking others to write emails/letters in support of halting the planned cuts; more information here.

Although there had been good news earlier, the bloodbath is about to begin in earnest.  Philosopher David Curry at SUNY-Potsdam writes:

SUNY Potsdam has finally given up on pretending to be an institution “committed to the liberal arts and sciences as an academic foundation for all students”, as expressed in its mission statement. After holding a sword over the head of faculty by threatening extensive cuts for going on 3 years, the next phase commences. 

Dr. Suzanne Smith (6 months on the job) announced on September 19 a plan to discontinue 14 degree programs at the university, including philosophy, and cut an as-of-yet-unknown number of faculty. This is on top of 4 programs discontinued over the Summer.  The plan is an attempt to reduce the university’s $9 million operating deficit. Enrollment at the university has dropped around 40% over the past 10 years.

The programs announced for discontinuation are:

  • Art history (BA)
  • Arts management (BA)
  • Biochemistry (MS)
  • Chemistry (BA)
  • Chemistry (BS)
  • Dance (BA)
  • French (BA)
  • Music performance (MM)
  • Philosophy (BA)
  • Physics (BA)
  • Public Health (BS)
  • Public Health (MS)
  • Spanish (BA)
  • Theater (BA)

Those discontinued over the summer:

  • College Teaching (CAS)
  • Computer Science Education (BA)
  • Geographic Information Science (BS)
  • Speech Communication (BA)

The process in developing the plan has been as opaque as the realignment plan, reported in the spring of 2022. The philosophy department has reincarnated the website it created last year to document that ordeal, of which this is act three. You can follow the tragi-comedy as it unfolds at   sunypotsdamphilosophy.com.

 

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17 responses to “Attack on philosophy and other arts & sciences disciplines accelerates at SUNY Potsdam”

  1. Steven Hales

    Unfortunately this story is soul-crushingly common and happening across so many universities. Someone (the APA? Brian?) might consider maintaining a list of colleges and universities that have abolished their philosophy major in the last 5 years, just to document how pervasive the problem truly is. Perhaps one day the hatchet men and women will realize that we cannot shrink our way to growth.

    Reply
  2. Martin Mellish

    Perhaps I'm old fashioned but I'm more shocked by the cancellation of Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science, which are absolutely core subjects, and also, I thought, have good employment prospects.

    Reply
  3. ex-SUNY person

    Martin
    Part of the problem with the natural sciences – chemistry and physics, in particular – at SUNY 4 year colleges is (i) that they are expensive to support (with labs), and the faculty are not especially successful at getting big grants that support labs, and (ii) some of the programs support very few majors. Where I was, there were ONLY 15 to 20 majors in phsyics (over four years … so about 5 or so a year). So the physicists relied on service teaching … teaching chemists … and gen ed science courses, like astronomy, that could fill a huge lecture hall. I was at a more successful and larger SUNY college … so I suspect that physics at Potsdam had fewer than 10 majors.

    Reply
  4. David Curry

    And how many of them employed the Rpk Group as consultants.

    Reply
  5. Harley Maxwell

    Shades of the Potsdam Conference.

    Reply
  6. dec

    The Potsdam Conference quip about latter-day totalitarians will have to be updated slightly:

    "They are dishonest, but smart as hell"

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/07/17/he-is-honest-but-smart-as-hell-when-truman-met-stalin

    Reply
  7. Trew

    A couple of key points regarding SUNY Potsdam. The department of chemistry and physics currently has 44 majors, 18 are physics. Faculty in the department have obtained over 1.5 million in grants over the past 5 years. The faculty were told grant production does not matter.

    Reply
  8. ex-SUNY person

    Trew,
    Yes, on paper physics has 18 majors. But, the graduation rate (which was available on another document I cannot find now), is about 2-3 per year. So, being optimistic, that is about 12 majors. If Potsdam is anything like the SUNY I was at, the entering class of physics majors is a healthy number, but the majority leave by the end of the first year (in fact, where I was half left after the first semester at college; they opt for an easier major). Administrators know this, and so do the physics faculty. Further 1.5 million USD over 5 years equals 300,000 USD a year for the whole department. What does that buy? A biologist at the SUNY I was at got a grant for 300,000 USD in the early 2000s. He bought a scientific instrument that could be used by a number of faculty in both biology and chemistry – but the grant did not include operating and maintenance costs. So the administration saw this as a concern, of course, as these costs had to be covered from the existing funds. The level of funding generated at the 4 year SUNY colleges by science faculty is really quite modest. Many of the faculty do a wonderful job, on a shoe string budget. I witnessed that. But you should not think that they are paying their way with the big grants they bring in – few bring in grants that are significant. I know quite a bit about the operations at SUNY schools because I was quite involved in a Middle States reaccreditation.

    Reply
  9. Trew

    You are correct that the graduation rate is lower than total enrollment. Two years ago chemistry had 55 majors and growing, then COVID happened. But here is the catch, faculty will need to teach 30 credit hours of chemistry and 30 hours of physics for the educational program. The BA in chemistry and physics is approx. 33 credit hours or 1 course every other year. As for maintaining the instruments, there is no budget. They just die.

    Reply
  10. AmadeusD

    Im having trouble finding any moral issue with a University unable to fund programs – not funding those programs?

    BL: One of the questions is whether the university cannot afford the program. Another question is, if there is a funding shortage, why target the programs in question. Please post with a real name going forward. Thank you.

    Reply
  11. AmadeusD

    Hi Brian,
    This is my real name. Amadeus Diamond. I am not kidding.

    Reply
  12. David C.K Curry

    ex-SUNY person, Trew, and Amadeus (great name!). Just to make some things clear:

    1) Brian is right – it isn't a matter of funding per se – no denying that SUNY Potsdam is in a financial crisis (of largely its own and SUNY System's making, but I digress). The question isn't whether cuts need to be made, but where they are best made, which brings me to;

    2) there is room for argument, perhaps, about whether philosophy, chemistry and physics, etc., are money makers. But the whole point is that there are arguments to be had. None of them have been had. Instead a vision for the future of a public institution has been imposed without any input based on an ideologically driven theory about the future of higher education perpetrated by the rpk Group of higher education consultants.

    Whew!

    The bottom line is that SUNY Potsdam is going to be completely remade in rpk’s image on a gamble – I believe that this has, and is and will be the pattern in public universities across the nation. That is the real story behind the debacle at SUNY Potsdam.

    Reply
  13. AmadeusD

    Hi David,

    Thanks very much for that. It appears I had not even close to the requisite understanding to make my comment. Which is not surprising.

    I've just gone through the Potsdam phil blog and read the UUP article linked – yikes. It certainly appears more and more cynical the more I see – particularly struck by Prof. Hanlon's comments around how they've crunched numbers so imprecisely to conclude that the current cuts are required. If that is, in fact, how they've gone about assessing 'financial health', that's – while not unsurprising to me – definitely morally questionable.

    We're experiencing quite a number of cuts to universities here in NZ too, but nothing that threatens entire departments, to my knowledge. Wild.

    Really appreciate the help. I am positioned (geographically) far from the fracas, so its good to hear something close to the bone.

    Reply
  14. ex-SUNY person

    David
    I think you misunderstood where I was coming from. My initial post was addressing Martin's question, about chemistry and physics. I think the way the SUNY four colleges are treated is a shame. Many probably do not know that there is an annual transfer of money from the four year colleges to the four research institutes so that the latter can be centers of excellence (and what does that make the four year colleges?!). I watched my own SUNY redirect resources and focus on communication studies – they supported a very popular set of majors. Their students were some of the weakest on the campus. It was a strategy. My own colleagues were sleeping at the wheel, so the best solution for me was to get out. Despite all this, some of our students were great, and some left with a great education. A computer science major from my former SUNY just got a TT job at an Ivey League school (go figure). One of my own previous students has a post doc at a good university in Germany. SUNY faculty do all this great work, despite the challenges they face.

    Reply
  15. David C.K Curry

    Amadeus,

    I sincerely hope that NZ, indeed the rest of the world, avoids this trend in US higher education. Best wishes.

    Reply
  16. David C.K Curry

    Thanks, ex-SUNY person. You are spot on that SUNY system has starved the 4 years while funding the R1 institutions (and that the amount of grant money brought in by the 4 years pales in comparison to the R1s). Your comment about colleagues being asleep at the wheel is also spot on – we faculty have been complicit in this trend that is undermining our own disciplines. That is part of why I am overly long-winded and perhaps a bit shrill on the website. We really need to wake up; it is coming for us all – at least those of us at public institutions. Glad you got out when the getting was good! Best wishes

    Reply
  17. ex-SUNY person

    David
    Good luck for your own self now. I hope you land on your feet. Getting an academic job is such a huge challenge, requiring one and one's family to endure pain and inconvenience. And then to have it taken from you by heartless administrators. They often come in from outside to do the job, and have no sense of the sacrifices that the hardworking faculty have made over the years … and frankly they do not even care. It is sickening.

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