Love of History Blog: Save classics in Pittsburgh.
Category: Programs in Peril
Classics Threatened at the University of Pittsburgh
Tip o’ the pileus to John McMahon for sending this in … from Inside Higher Education comes another sad tale (and, as often, the way in which it was done is bizarre):
Long considered one of public higher education’s finest destinations for graduate work in the humanities, the University of Pittsburgh has cut off admissions to master’s and doctoral programs in German, religious studies, and classics in response to reduced state aid.
Some students and faculty fear those departments may soon be totally eliminated, and online petitions are circulating demanding that admissions be restored in classics (620 signatures) and German (1,460 signatures). “This represents a significant step back from one of the university’s oldest and most lasting commitments, from a subject to which so many others owe an immense debt,” reads the classics petition. The German petition laments that the decision “sets a precedence for the dismantling of the humanities based on profit-orientation.”
If eliminated, these departments wouldn’t be the first casualties of the nation’s newly condensed college coffers. But the fact that these cuts loom at Pittsburgh – and in programs with students who have turned down offers from elite private universities — poses larger questions about the university’s commitment to graduate humanities education and whether this decision is a harbinger of future cuts.
Provost Patricia Beeson declined repeated requests for an interview, citing “end-of-semester duties.” But the independent faculty newspaper, the University Times, attributed a statement to Beeson saying the suspension of graduate admissions could be a precursor to the total elimination of those departments. A campus spokesman said those departments wouldn’t be closed, but then said Beeson’s statement was portrayed fairly in the Times.
Students already enrolled in the three programs will be able to finish their degrees, and those already admitted for the fall are still allowed to come. Undergraduate programs won’t be affected, university spokesman Robert Hill said. He added that Pittsburgh’s commitment to graduate programs in the humanities remains unchanged.
But the real question is less what those three departments will look like in five months, and more what they’ll look like in five years. “A best-case scenario will be that somehow these cuts can be reversed,” said Edwin Floyd, classics department chair. “A probable scenario would be that there would be no [classics] department. Faculty will be absorbed into two or three other departments.”
Pitt declined to make any administrator available for comment, but agreed to have Hill answer written questions. Hill said there were no immediate plans to close any of three affected departments, and reiterated that the graduate programs were only having their admissions suspended, leaving open the possibility that those suspensions could be lifted.
Asked whether other programs could face similar changes, Hill said “We have nothing to announce, but we are constantly evaluating programs.”
The German, classics and religious studies programs were identified for admissions suspension “based on a set of criteria that included scale of the program; costs vs. revenues; national positioning of the programs; external perception of the programs; and student qualifications, graduation rates, honors, and placements,” Hill wrote. The university wouldn’t say how much money it expects to save.
Faculty Assembly President Michael Pinsky declined to comment, saying it was an “internal issue” going through “appropriate channels.” But David Givens, a doctoral student in religious studies and president elect of Pitt’s Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, said his constituents are concerned their program could be next. “Students are worried about — both within the College of Arts and Sciences and outside — is this a trend?” he said. “Are our programs at risk?”
Floyd, the classics chair, and John Lyon, the German chair, criticized not only the decision but also the way it was made. Both said they were called into the dean’s office — along with their religious studies colleague who didn’t return a message seeking comment — on Monday, April 2, and were informed that the university was considering suspending graduate admissions to their programs. That Thursday, Floyd and Lyon said, the dean called to tell them that decision was going into effect.
Both chairs said they were given no chance to state their case for maintaining graduate admissions. “There was no real conversation,” Lyon said. “We were told.”
When asked to clarify the role of faculty chairs in the decision making process, Hill wrote that they were indeed consulted. He declined to expand on that explanation.
“The decision to suspend admission to these programs was a difficult but necessary step given the current budget situation, and was made in consultation with, and informed by the input of, the Dietrich School Deans, members of the Dietrich School Council and the school’s Planning and Budget Committee, as well as the recommendations submitted by the Dietrich School chairs and directors,” Hill wrote.
While Lyon disagrees with the decision to target the German department, he said he understands the need for the university to trim its budget. But he said doing so without meaningful consultation with those impacted — which he says happened here — is irresponsible.
“There’s financial exigency,” he said. “The university has to make cuts somewhere. It’s how they go about doing it and the process.”
- via: Humanities Retrenchment at Pitt (Inside Higher Ed)
The petition on the Classics side is here …
Classics Threatened at Royal Holloway
I don’t know about others who have done Classics on this side of the pond, but while I was formally pursuing degrees in Classics, there always seemed to be a perception that Classics in the UK was safe and stable, and sort of a model for what Classics programs would like to be. In the past couple of years, however, it has become clear that departments in the UK are as increasingly fighting for their survival as their counterparts on this side of the pond are. In the past, we’ve mentioned the potential loss of paleography at King’s College, for example (although we note that KCL is advertising for someone to fill the post) and somehow missed mentioning (apologies to friends at Leeds!) the travails Leeds Classics was going through (they now appear to be in some sort of bureaucratic wait-and-see holding pattern). The latest, however, is possibly most surprising — Royal Holloway has just heard the dire news … here’s one version from the Orbital:
Less than one year after its formation, the Department of Classics and Philosophy faces dissolution.
College Council has proposed changes to discontinue the Classics BA degree and to cut over half of Classics staff. Under the plans, Classics degrees are expected to be phased out over three years, starting with a reduction in student numbers as of September 2012.There will be a 90 day consultation period before any changes go ahead.
Affected staff were briefed on the proposals prior to their discussion at College Council. They have also been offered counselling in ‘managing change.’
Remaining Classics staff would move to the History Department and Philosophy posts would be relocated in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Classics is expected to have a presence on Modern History courses. Those students presently enrolled will not be affected.
Head of Department, Anne Sheppard, earlier this year denied rumours that the Department may close. “I do not think there is any risk,” she said.
Mary Beard, professor in classics at Cambridge, believes the plans signal a ‘slow death’ for the department. “There will be no language teaching, which – in my view – always take the stuffing out of any classical enterprise,” she said.
“Royal Holloway is a good Classics department; and if you excise it from Royal Holloway, you impoverish and devalue all the humanities there.”
Academic Affairs Officer and Classics student, Carl Welch, believes the Students’ Union needs to campaign around the proposals. “The Classics department at RHUL is well respected, with pre-eminent scholars,” he said.“I find this decision to be vastly at odds with [Principal] Layzell’s plans as a whole.”
Anne Sheppard, the head of department, circulated a letter which appeared on the Classicists list which boils things down a bit more clearly:
Proposals for cuts affecting the Department of Classics and Philosophy at Royal Holloway
The College Council are setting up a formal consultation process over proposals for the following cuts affecting the Department of Classics and Philosophy:
1. From September 2012 student numbers will be reduced to 40 per year, for BAs in Classical Studies and Ancient History as well as Joint Honours. The Classics degree will be discontinued.
2. The Philosophy staff, including one Ancient Philosophy post, will move to the Department of Politics and International Relations.
3. A Research Professor, currently shared with English, will move into the English Department.
4. Of the remaining 11 posts, 6 will disappear by 2014, leaving 5 staff who will then move, as a unit, to the History Department.
The consultation, which has not yet started, will run for 90 days. The Department will be responding fully to the planning documents that are to be circulated. […]
Elimination of a pure Classics degree, of course, means no more Classical languages at Royal Holloway; along with that would go the only Classical versification course in the UK (according to a mention in the Facebook group … more on that later). Mary Beard’s initial reaction is bang on (inter alia):
Well I am hugely relieved for the people whose jobs were on the line. But dont cheer too soon; this looks to me like the slow death, rather than the quick death, model. There will be no language teaching, which — in my view — always take the stuffing out of any classical enterprise. What keen classics student would opt for this? And bet you anything, as soon as one of those classicists in history leaves or retires, they will be replaced by some one in British 19th century, or South East Asian post-colonial.
Mary Beard also made a followup post, digging for the real reasons for this attack … the whole thing should be read, but here’s her (again, bang on) conclusion:
So the proposal is to cut all study of Classics in the original language, and invest entirely in History and Classical Studies (‘where demand is still strong’…this is a demand economy obviously, not an EDUCATIONAL university). And the remaining ‘classicists’ will move to History, ‘to enable the shared teaching of ancient history, leverage of research leadership and shared administrative support’. (‘leverage of research leadership…’? what does that mean — especially when you are cutting the whole linguistic side of this operation.)
Now, I know that outsiders like me can never really understand what is going on inside another institution. I have no idea what the student questionnaires are like, or the potential research submissions to the next Assessment Exercise. There will be all kinds of things going on that I know nothing off.
All the same, it doesnt take much to smell a commercial argument for academic change here.
That said, I’ve mentioned the existence of a facebook group for all this (I’ll give a link at the end), which already boasts over 3000 members and has generated about 30 pages of discussion/debate. Interestingly, the principal of RHUL felt a need to comment on the existence of the Facebook group in a post relayed via Sophia Haque:
This is a message from Royal Holloway’s Principal, Professor Paul Layzell:
“I am concerned to see this debate on Facebook and would like to add my contribution.
Classics has a strong tradition at Royal Holloway, and I believe it plays an important part in the academic portfolio of our institution. It is for this reason that we are currently exploring options to ensure that we can continue to include Classics in our programme of teaching and research. It is not our intention to ‘close Classics’ as some have interpreted our proposals, but to retain it in a form that is sustainable in the long-term.
‘Do nothing’ is not an option. As things stand, the department runs at a considerable deficit which we cannot address through growing student numbers because of the cap government places on our total student numbers. This situation will be made worse if proposals in the HE White Paper remove around 7% home/EU undergraduate numbers from institutions.
As a relatively small institution, we cannot afford heavy cross subsidies that might undermine the financial sustainability of our institution as a whole. Instead, we must find ways to ensure that each of our subject areas delivers research and teaching of a sufficient quality, that is popular with students, and affordable to us and them. We have put forward proposals to enable Classics to do just this, and we have invited our staff to put forward their own ideas. Our intention is protect a discipline that we value, and secure its long term future within our College.
I had hoped that we would be able to have those discussions within our community, rather than in the public domain. I am concerned that public debate will only worsen the situation; prospective students could easily misunderstand our proposals to sustain Classics with the incorrect impression that ‘closure’ was imminent. Such an impression would almost certainly result in the failure to attract students, with dire consequences.
I invite staff, students and alumni to engage with us in the debate within College. By Monday, we will have a site within our intranet, that will allow us to debate these issues amongst ourselves, and work out the best solution together. We are at the stage where we have identified a problem, and I would urge you to work with us to solve it, rather than challenge us publicly and exacerbate the situation beyond remedy”.
You can read some reactions to this in RHUL’s student newspaper: Principal asserts public debate over Classics proposals ‘will only worsen situation’. FWIW, I always get suspicious when powerful folks ‘don’t want to argue in front of the children’ …
Subsequent inquiries about this ‘discussion’ to take place on Monday (for how long?) suggests ‘outsiders’ won’t be allowed to voice their concerns thereon. Until then, the head of department has requested (in the same letter mentioned above):
Letters of support will be very welcome. These should be addressed to the Principal, Prof. Paul Layzell, but should be sent in the first instance NOT directly to him but to the Department, so that we can collect them to use as we see fit.
… they seem to be thinking primarily of actual paper-based letters, but Anne Sheppard’s email address is available here. The folks on facebook seem to be adamant that Mr. Layzell should not be mailed directly at this point.
An online petition has not been started near as I can tell, but other channels to voice support and/or monitor the situation would include the aforementioned facebook group:
… and on Twitter:
… not sure how the #SOSRHUL hashtag is working out …
We’ll keep monitoring events as they unfold …
Latin at Waterloo Collegiate Institute Threatened!
Long-time readers of rogueclassicism will know that one of my ongoing bugbears is the sorry state of Classical knowledge up here in the Great White North and the lack of general recognition of the value of such basic things as Latin. And so, it was with great dismay when Anna Norris brought to my attention the fact that a Latin program down the highway from me was facing cuts … here’s the incipit of an online petition for same:
On April 21, various grade 10 and 11 students at Waterloo Collegiate Institute were called down to the guidance office. They were dismayed to find that the Grade 11/12 Latin class for the 2011-2012 school year was cancelled due to the ‘small’ number of people signed up (15). The class has run with numbers like this before.
WCI is one of two schools in the Waterloo region to have a Latin Program. Next year, it will be the only school. What the students would love to do is continue to learn this language, and learn more about the fascinating culture and history that has greatly influenced modern society. However, their opportunity to do this has been jeopardized. The WCI Latin students are a passionate group of people that love the course. They want to continue their education in Latin.
… I’m sure these budding Latinists and Classicists could use some support from the Classics community at large; here’s where you can sign the petition:
[note that the particular petition site these folks are using asks for a donation; you do NOT have to donate for your signature to be recorded, as far as I can tell]
Latin Threatened at UMaine!!
- Image by jimmywayne via Flickr
Not sure how I missed any previous coverage of this … from the Maine Campus:
A Jan. 24 letter from University of Maine President Robert Kennedy to Faculty Senate President Michael Grillo indicates that three majors — Latin, German and women’s studies — are a step closer to the chopping block.
In response, fourth-year Latin and history student Jeremy Swist, with the help of faculty members, has circulated and submitted to administrators a 674-signature petition urging the university to “preserve a commitment to the liberal arts by maintaining full faculty positions in the Classics and courses in Latin and Greek grammar, literature and culture from the introductory to the 400-level.”
The petition features influential signees, including former UMaine President Peter Hoff, former Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, Yale University ancient history professor Donald Kagan, British classical scholar Peter Green and Irish classicist and philosopher John M. Dillon. It also features the signatures of a number of UMaine professors and students, as well as from individuals in Asia and Europe.
“Basically, it’s just a network of history professors, classics professors, [people from] various departments, well-wishers — a lot of connections,” Swist said.
On the petition, Dillon called the situation at UMaine “a sad descent into barbarism.”
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Hecker said the wording of the petition could be somewhat misleading, directing signees to make untrue assumptions about the situation.
“There are some misconceptions there. We don’t have a department of classics,” Hecker said. “We have a single faculty member in our budget for teaching classics. We offer a Latin major and we offer courses in classics and offer classes in Greek.”
Hecker said the notable scholars on the list make him take the petition “very seriously,” but the misconceptions in the letter and the current budgetary situation override their pleas.
“I’m supportive of the spirit of the letter, but no university, at least I don’t think a university, would respond to a group of outsiders by making a commitment to whether people would be hired or not hired,” Hecker said. “That’s just not a reasonable way to run the place.”
Last semester, the faculty senate passed a resolution to support recommendations made by the four-person Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee to continue with Kennedy’s suggestions to suspend bachelor’s degree programs in theater, forest ecosystem science, wood science and technology, and aquaculture made in April 2010.
However, the PCRRC also supported a one-year delay of April’s final recommendations by Kennedy to suspend majors in German, Latin and women’s studies.
“Unfortunately, I cannot endorse the PCRRC recommendations with respect to the suspension proposals relative to German, Latin and women’s studies,” Kennedy wrote to Grillo. “I believe that the decision I reached last spring at the conclusion of the university’s inclusive, comprehensive review process, although painful, is the correct decision under our current circumstances.”
Those involved directly with the Latin and classics fields are wondering how a major with one administering faculty member, Associate Professor of Classical Language and Literature Tina Passman, and a mere six degree students would save enough money to warrant the axe.
“I just think it’s a utilitarian outlook that doesn’t see the immediate benefit of these academic languages — German and Latin,” Swist said. “It’s the point of view that these disciplines won’t earn you money upon graduation. You don’t go to college to earn money. You go to college to become a well-rounded citizen and develop your intellectual capacity.”
Hecker said the decision to eliminate the major was strictly based on low enrollment and student retention. There are currently six students majoring in Latin at UMaine. In the last six years, Hecker said, there have been anywhere from zero to six students seeking majors in that field.
Only one student in the last five years, he said, earned a Latin degree. Lower-level courses, he said, have “reasonable enrollment” and are viable options to be kept.
“In essence, by retaining the major, we are committing Dr. Passman’s time to do that in the future. When I looked at it, it’s very hard to justify that resource for such a small number of students,” Hecker said.
Passman, reached Friday, said she has been the only person teaching Latin on campus for 25 years, “except for an adjunct or two.”
She said she does not understand why Kennedy would move to suspend the major now, as she has tenure and will not be asked to stop teaching even upper-level Latin courses due to the retention of a Latin minor.
“Why doesn’t he just wait until I retire?” she said. “I’m tenured and I’m going to be teaching Latin until all the current students receive their degrees. … The minor will necessitate that many of the same courses be available for students.”
“There’s not one cent that is saved — not one cent — by eliminating the Latin major,” Passman continued.
Passman said Hecker has been very supportive throughout the process and that he does not want to burden her with teaching Latin, as she also teaches classics and will serve as the director of the minor in peace and reconciliation studies next semester.
“The short-term savings are very small,” Hecker said in response to cost-savings concerns. “In the long-term, though, if we in fact move toward suspending it now … professor Passman will at some point retire or take a position somewhere else and we can then make our hard decisions within that sort of framework.”
Jay Bregman, a professor of ancient, intellectual and jazz history, echoed Passman’s sentiments about cost-savings and was strong in opposition of Kennedy.
“There’s one professor here — Tina Passman. That’s the major. It costs nothing … as a major. [Kennedy] just basically wants to do it because he’s basically a perverse S.O.B. who seems to have a hang-up about it,” Bregman said. “This guy is bad news.”
In 2001, Bregman said, Kennedy wanted to eliminate German and Latin to much opposition from faculty. Phi Beta Kappa, the history honors society, threatened to leave because of a bylaw within its national guidelines at the time that said any university with a chapter had to have a Latin major, he said.
“He was stomped,” Bregman, a 35-year veteran of UMaine, said. “Then, he got to be president. Because, basically, what this character does is find ways to amass power.”
Bregman called Kennedy “by far the worst president I’ve ever seen at this university by a mile.” He also said the president has moved the university in the direction of a technical school.
In the petition, James Warhola, a professor of political science, wrote it is “simply not acceptable for a state university to lack courses in the classical languages of Greek and Latin. The University of Maine is just that — a university, not a technical-vocational school.”
Michael Palmer, also a professor of political science who teaches political philosophy, wrote that until now, he has “never seen liberal education held [in] such low repute” at UMaine.
Bergman said the effects of losing the Latin program at UMaine could have a devastating impact on state education.
“It has been an old prophecy that this was going to happen,” he said. “But when it happens in a state like Maine, the place can really get hurt. It’s a small school.”
Passman said there are approximately 60 high school Latin programs in the state. She said she would continue to work with these programs and deliver her classes online, a process made easier as she converted her curriculum into an electronic format in the late 1990s.
“Nothing has changed except for the fact that we won’t have a major at the flagship institution,” she said. “It also means that anyone who wants to be a Latin teacher in this state will have to go elsewhere.”
Kennedy, through UMaine spokesman Joe Carr, declined a request for comment, citing time constraints.
Check out the original article for links to the letter and the petition …
n.b. If your program is in peril, please send details etc. to rogueclassicism so we can make the Classics community aware (800+ folks read rc on any given day) …
rogueclassicism 