Philosophy Major at Kennesaw State May Be Eliminated
As if it were the manager of a candy store deciding which chewing gum to stock, the administration of Kennesaw State University (Georgia) is deciding which majors to offer solely by seeing how many kids already like them.
(As familiar as this mindset has become to us all, its oddness is worth drawing attention to every once in a while.)
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia have criteria for the identification of “low-producing” majors: fewer than 10 graduates per year for a bachelor’s program. The Kennesaw administration identified those majors, and then, though (according to WABE) not required by the Regents to do so, to “get the most of its ‘limited resources,'” decided to cut them (according to The Atlanta Voice).
The result is that students at Kennesaw will no longer be able to choose to major in Philosophy, Black Studies, or Technical Communication.
Reportedly, the Dean Catherine Kaukinen of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences has said that faculty and staff involved with these majors will keep their jobs, which of course raises the question of how much of the university’s “limited resources” are freed up by cutting the majors. Perhaps that will change after the two-year “teach out” period for existing majors in the affected programs to satisfy their requirements has elapsed.
The mascot of Kennesaw State is named SCRAPPY THE OWL, yet the administration thinks the university’s scrappy philosophy major should go.
WABE reports that the Philosophy Program seemed to be on the cusp of moving out of the “low-producing” category:
According to faculty, there were 61 majors and 31 minors in the philosophy program at the beginning of April. The philosophy program has graduated six in FY 2024 and six in FY 2023, but [says it] will graduate 12 in FY 2025.
Furthermore, there are concerns that the university did not follow proper procedures in deactivating the majors. WABE reports:
The move by the university has drawn backlash from students and faculty members who say university administrators circumvented KSU’s own processes for deactivating a program.
The [College of Humanities and Social Sciences’] curriculum committee passed a resolution on April 14 stating that Kaukinen had verbally communicated the deactivation of the three programs to department heads without administrators having first gone through the curriculum review process, which requires approval from the department or school curriculum committee, department chairs and others.
According to the 2025 KSU curriculum guide, the deactivation of any program falls under a list of changes that “must be approved” through this process.
Then, after Kaukinen’s April 24 email announcing the deactivation, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution on April 28 calling on the administration to comply with the curriculum review process.
Amy Donahue, an associate professor of philosophy, told WABE that philosophy degree output is expected to increase this year and next, and the administration’s decision to pursue deactivations without going through the review process was “unprecedented.”
Further details here.
I cannot in good conscience click “like”… Can we add a “well, that’s f*cked up” button?
There is a somewhat similar situation developing at Vancouver Island University, in Canada. The philosophy honours, major, and minor may be suspended, and the number of philosophy majors seems to be a factor.
https://cheknews.ca/viu-floats-cancellation-suspension-of-multiple-grad-and-undergrad-programs-1253322/
The State of Indiana has introduced a line item in its new budget (not yet signed into law, but likely to be). They insist on an average of 15 graduates per year over a three-year period. Unfortunately, philosophy has already been eliminated at most campuses in the state, specifically all the regional campuses of IU and Purdue. But the few remaining schools with a major will likely lose them in the next year, the two flagships in Bloomington and West Lafayette excepted.
It’s been signed. It’s law. Non-coincidentally, the person who was President at Kennesaw State is now President of IU, and was responsible for both the death of tenure there as at IU, as well as this mischief [worked actively with the legislature to this end]
This talk of eliminating “low-producing” programs is becoming more serious all over the place, and administrators seem keen on it even in cases where there are no apparent financial benefits. In my mind, all this does is hurt students by limiting important options; by contrast, admin seem genuinely worried that “too many choices” is a problem that puts students off of colleges.
Philosophy and many of the other disciplines under threat are foundational disciplines. One just has to look around the world we live in to see how impactful more philosophical education could be in fostering critical thinking, open discourse, and regard for the truth and the common good.
In many cases, it is administrators in charge of recruitment, admissions, and advising that are to blame rather than faculty. What the administration perceives as “low-value” majors don’t get the attention in terms of recruitment resources, the students get subtly or even explicitly encouraged into other programs, and admissions offices even limit the number of admits to such majors when doing so will help them achieve some other target. I’ve literally had an admissions officer tell me that even if the pool of Philosophy applicants doubled (while maintaining the same quality of applicants), that would not necessarily translate to even roughly double the number of admitted students.
Offering a robust liberal arts education through an engaging core curriculum along with the possibility of choosing a liberal arts major is a non-negotiable feature of any serious college or university; in my mind, the short-term popularity of those majors ought to be irrelevant as a consideration. Whether those majors provide valuable skills and preserve traditions of excellence is the key issue.