University of Utah Cans History and Philosophy of Science Major Amidst Political and Administrative Chaos
One way public universities in Utah can earn back part of the $60 million in funding that the state legislature took from their budgets is by “showing that [the funds] will be reallocated for high-demand and high-wage majors as the state pushes for higher education to be more job-focused,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Because of this, writes, Cynthia Stark, chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Utah, in an essay at Inside Higher Ed:
We lost our History and Philosophy of Science major, which drew some of our best students, many of them double majoring in STEM subjects and working toward careers in medicine and public health. To be clear, eliminating this major will reduce opportunities for students while producing no savings whatsoever; offering it requires no additional staff, advisers or courses beyond what is already in place for our philosophy major.
The funding cuts, she says, “also mean that tenure-line faculty in my department will receive a zero percent raise this year.”
In the piece she describes some of the other aspects of the “upheaval” at the university over the past year:
- the state legislature’s passage of an “anti-DEI” bill that the university interpreted “as requiring that the Women’s Resource Center, the Black Cultural Center and the LGBT Resource Center be shuttered”
- the state’s imposition of a “bathroom bill” requiring trans university students to use locker rooms aligning with their sex assigned at birth
- the banning of Pride flags in public spaces and in faculty offices if they can be seen through a window
- the state requiring faculty to post their syllabi in a publicly searchable database
- the start of the implementation of a plan “mandating that all students take general education courses on the topics of Western civilization and the rise of Christianity” that will be rolled out at all public universities in Utah
- a new policy, announced by the university president, “that returned missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be eligible to receive up to 12 college credits for their service to the church”
- a rash of administrative changes—a revamped advising system, a consolidation of the university’s colleges, a plethora of new “student success initiatives” —that have “imposed a crushing amount of (mostly stultifying) work on deans and department chairs”.
You can read the whole piece here.
Oh, and the name change to University of Gilead…
Genuine question for any who have had more exposure to administrators and policymakers:
how does a major like “history and philosophy of science” not automatically register as 1) big (and low cost) product differentiation among STEM-competitive institutions, and relatedly 2) marketable as a way for STEM students to differentiate?
I guess this is a question of “what is the mental model of these people that I should have, which makes sense of this particular happening”. (As I am already used to being confused and saddened by the fact that philosophy in general, and other humanities programs, don’t often register to them in this way… but at least the name of this one should count for something!)
I don’t know the details at the U., but statewide, the schools were all told that they had to ‘strategically reallocate’ 10% of their budgets and cut ‘underperforming programs’ — which is usually operationalized as ‘small, in something that doesnn’t sound like tech, regardless of the facts.’ And lots of faculty cuts. So they probably got a lot of faculty to retire early elsewhere around the university, and they can crow that they cut lots of programs and X number of faculty lines, and the fact that history and philosophy of science doesn’t cost anything over and above the philosophy program doesn’t matter, because it’s not actually an enrollment crisis or a budget crisis.
I suspect history and philosophy of science was cut because it looked like an easy target that didn’t jeopardize faculty lines (as the department is philosophy, and the trigger for revoking tenure is ‘discontinuation of program.’)
You’re observing the rationality of centralized planning.
Vague directives go through very long chains of command, with the people at the top having no real idea of the situation on the ground and no real idea of how to measure anything. So the only criterion of success is whether a report is generated that matches the directive. The path of least resistance to such a report is the “mental model” that you seek.
This is why departments sometimes cut positions for which there is a genuine need, only to immediately recreate them under a different title. Cut a VAP, hire a teaching fellow. One deanlet has a report about cuts, another has one about teaching enhancement. Nothing has changed, everybody is happy.
If the directive is to cut programs with certain features, it doesn’t really matter if there are no programs with these features; or whether it makes strategic sense to cut some of them. Sure, you can evaluate all programs and tell legislature/trustees that the directive is already fulfilled or makes no sense to fulfill, but that’s a lot of work, possibly leads to conflict, and might only get you a harsher directive.
Easier to tell the next person in the chain that they need to find something to cut. Iterate until the dean-level. They call in all the department heads and tell them the same thing: give me something I can report as a “win” upwards. Removing an interdepartmental major with no personnel impact and continuing to teach all its courses is the expected outcome.
Odd that the HPS major has been cut despite not requiring any additional costs beyond what the phil dept already offers. I’m primarily looking at sec. 3(b)(ii) of HB265, which requires the university to produce a reinvestment plan that, inter alia: “identifies programs, courses, degrees […] that the institution will reduce or eliminate to shift resources, in an amount at least equal to the amount of reinvestment funds dedicated to the institution, to the strategic investments […]”. But HPS shouldn’t have been identified as such a degree, as removing it does not free up resources to shift, as Stark points out. So did someone in admin (Interim Vice Associate Executive Dean of Landscaping, Vending Machines, and Vibes) simply cut with too coarse a cleaver and HPS suffered as collateral damage? Or is there a nuance to budgeting that I’ve missed?
(While writing this MBW has suggested “So they probably got a lot of faculty to retire early elsewhere around the university, and they can crow that they cut lots of programs and X number of faculty lines, and the fact that history and philosophy of science doesn’t cost anything over and above the philosophy program doesn’t matter.” If that’s true, it’s really unsatisfying.)
“a new policy, announced by the university president, “that returned missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be eligible to receive up to 12 college credits for their service to the church”
As a public university, isn’t this a clear 1st amendment violation? I can see BYU doing this, but not a state school.
In theory, the credit is available to any student who has engaged in “missionary, military, or humanitarian service.” I would be interested to see if Missionaries from the Satanic Temple actually receive credit in practice….
so they’ll award these credits to returned peace corps volunteers? American red cross disaster responders? world. central kitchen staff?
More than likely
No. Whether it is service to a church, public institution or military, it is still service that provides education in a variety of disciplines. Congress has not enacted a law “favoring an establishment of religion” if it applies equally to any religion with similar programs and requirements.
I appreciate the counterpoint. At the same time, I’m rather skeptical that it, in point of fact, ‘applies equally to any religion.’
In 1971 I received credit for two years of Japanese language classes by passing an exam. I had served two of years as an LDS missionary in Japan, including a 2 month intensive language course at BYU Hawaii. During that summer, I earned a full 15 hours credit for completing a 6 week AFROTC training program, including 2 weeks of classroom instruction in military history and organization, and 4 weeks visiting active military activities, including Edwards AFB where we looked through new and experimental planes (a pre-production C-5A giant cargo plane), NASA Moffett Field wind tunnels (a test model of the new F-15), Presidio of San Francisco and a ride above the Golden Gate Bridge on UH-1 choppers, flight in navigation training planes above Sacramento, training with Navy jet boats, and flight on jet trainers. So why not give credit for real world experiences?
What a weird country or state in any case. What happens when you combine theocracy with capitalism…
Welcome to the real world. If that’s too weird for you, I don’t know where you can turn for assistance. Capitalism works and Jesus saves.
Really? A majority of the world does not think Jesus saves!
Truth is not arrived at by concensus either. Or at gunpoint.
This is a great motto. You could sell it to the university. Or to the USA. Why think small? It’s like Body Christ in Dogma.
“Capitalism works and Jesus saves.” Well, he tried (Matthew 21:12).
Pretty sure he was working with Neil Peart’s 2112, so it checks out.
I can’t tell whether you’re being serious or sarcastic. I hope it’s the latter. It would be depressing to come across yet another philosopher with rock-bottom mental and moral capacities.
I suspect you haven’t. If you look up the name you get this failed youtube account:
https://www.youtube.com/@thedispatchandfreedomshera53
Looks like just your bang average would be conservative pundit who lives in Salt Lake City, thus explaining the interest in this topic.
Yes, capitalism works. Thats why 60% of Americans can not afford a surprise $1,000 bill, and 54% of our population can’t read past a 6th grade level
Sorry, your a bit confused. Capitalism does not guarantee anyone $1000 in the cookie jar for a rainy day. Personal spending habit, and saving habits, are what that would be predicated upon. And the sad, slow move towards oblivion in the US educational system is the result of teacher’s unions with, at least partly, their resistance towards school choice and individual teacher’s accountability. Capitalism HAS however, helped pull half the world in extreme poverty out of it since the nineties after many poor nations dropped their universal socialist policies.
Nice bit of performative trolling there, Tom. You mention “the sad, slow move towards oblivion in the US educational system” in a post that contains two demonstrations of the inability to use apostrophes correctly (“your” instead of “you’re”, and “teacher’s unions” instead of “teachers’ unions”), and a singular instead of plural (“spending habit” instead of “spending habits”). Well done! I guess a good education system doesn’t guarantee that anyone will actually learn, any more than capitalism guarantees that anyone will have $1000 in a cookie jar for a rainy day.
Nice attempt at addressing the gist of the argument. Not. If all you have is orthographic and punctuation criticisms, you have nothing. Going through all the posts to nitpick typos? In other words, you must begrudgingly agree. You know what they say about people like you.
There was no argument in your post, just unsupported claims, so your illiteracy was the only thing to address.
Utah is ranked on many scales among the top 5 states, based on job opportunities and successful new businesses and personal prosperity for its citizens. It is a national center for tech industries, including computer software, medical devices, and aerospace. It’s people are above average in education, and they have the highest concentration of multilingual people who have lived and worked outside the USA. That is why the Utah National Guard is the Army’s center for providing linguists to US overseas operations. The University of Utah medical school is a nationally ranked center for research and treatment in cancer and ophthalmology. The BYU Clark Law School is ranked #25 in the USA, University of Utah Quinney Law School is #31. Utah has outstanding natural environments, from mountains with top winter sports (2002 and 2034 Olympics) to unique national parks, recreation (Lake Powell), and wildlife refuges (e.g. Great Salt Lake Migratory Bird Flyway). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donates over $1 Billion per year to charities in the US and worldwide, including disaster relief, and assists people who are unemployed or disabled, including producing food that is distributed free to those in need, including to Food Banks and the Salvation Army. What does YOUR state do for the world?
This reads like a marketing pitch from the Governor’s office. The administration’s actions at the University of Utah will rapidly undermine the current metrics relevant to that institution. Also, the actions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whether praiseworthy or otherwise, have nothing to do with the actions of State institutions. At least they should not, to be in line with the Ist amendment and the separation of church and State clause in Utah’s State constitution.
I don’t have a state (just for the record). But I don’t see the connection between present-day absurdist policies and Utah’s performance so far. Present-day Body Christ policies are only relevant for what will happen to the state in the future. Time will tell, I guess, but I have – what I think is – an intelligent guess…
As an alumni I am disappointed, embarrassed and ashamed.
I finished my undergrad in philosophy of science at the University of Utah in 2022 and am so unhappy and stunned about this. I really wish this program hadn’t been cut and, because of my own experiences, find the idea that the program was not “job-focused” enough to be absurd. While I usually maintain a pretty deflationary stance about my own skill set, the training I received in philosophical logic and parsing through scientific research has been consistently helpful throughout my (thus far, very short) career:
1) As a city employee, developing normative arguments grounded in social scientific research to inform Salt Lake City’s code enforcement policies.
2) Analyzing neuroscientific research on emotion and expectation-setting to develop and teach an accessible training for court mediators across the State of Arizona.
3) While facilitating negotiations, crafting clear and concise legal agreements between lawyers for the State of Arizona, Indigenous Tribes and Nations, advocacy groups for refugee children, and low income families.
It’s worth shouting out some of the great professors who worked in the philsci program and/or taught required courses and to various extents trained me to do this practical work: Edison Barrios, Natalia Washington, Jonah Schupbach, and many more.
You could get equivalent skills through the Master of Laws degree program at the U of U Quinney Law School. Seriously, the Law School has a program for training mediators and other specialists in dispute resolution. Not to mention the attorney education program, with many practical internships and community service experiences for credit.
I did my BA in math and computer software design, and I earned an advanced degree in environmental law and specialized in that field for the last 40 years. A philosophy and history of science program would be a good foundation for my field of environmental policy and regulation. Many major public policy questions hinge on public understanding of science. So I am puzzled why that degree was cut BY UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS.
These abilities you developed in the POS program are just as available in other fields of study through the Philosophy Department and even the Business College. Elsewhere too I’d reckon.
I await when any state mandates reading Orwell and Huxley. . .and being a modest scholar of actual Christian history, will they teach the actual facts of how the historical Jesus is not in fact clearly historical at all? This is all so disgusting.
The vitriol and hate directed toward Mormons and Christians on this thread is disgusting.
I’m against this—especially the silly job-focused majors part, which then translates to popular
majors—not the same thing! But this is just gross. Reading these thoughtless, prejudiced comments—what a gross example of the worst kind of groupthink.
I’m confused by this comment–where are you seeing vitriol and hate directed toward Mormons and Christians on this thread? Am I missing something (were they deleted)?
Much of this sounds terrible. But what’s wrong with “the state requiring faculty to post their syllabi in a publicly searchable database”?
In principle, nothing, but I believe the concern in the current context is that it further exposes certain faculty to harassment by some of the public and to inappropriate political targeting by legislators and other opportunists.
Both of which are bad, but I’m not convinced trying to keep syllabi secret is a good response. It’s not like they can’t be FOIAed anyway, and I think the (false) belief that your syllabus is secret can encourage both carelessness and, on rare occasions, active malpractice.
Yes, anyone can FOIA a syllabus, or probably just email the professor and ask for it. I don’t think the idea people have in objecting to a public database of syllabi is that syllabi should be secret. The debate isn’t at that level. Rather, it’s about managing the benefits and burdens of communication.
One burden of communication is the effort it takes to acquire information. Another burden of communication is harassment enabled by the acquisition of that information. (There are of course other burdens, and benefits, too.) Without disagreeing that the information should be available to the public, we can disagree on the relative importance of the burdens involved, and adjust the ease of information flow accordingly. We might think it is wise to make the acquisition of information more effortful in this kind of situation because it’s more important to protect professors from harassment and political targeting than it is to make it easy for others to harass and target them. The hope is that some trivial trolling and harassment is likely to be deterred by the effort involved in acquiring the information, and that that’s worth making things more effortful even for those with nobler intentions.
Certainly there are value judgments and empirical assumptions at play in this reasoning that I’ve not explicitly mentioned or defended, but I take it you get the idea.
The distinction I’m drawing on isn’t unique to the question of syllabi at state universities. More generally, there’s (1) the question of who should have a right to X, and (2) the question of what procedures (etc.) should be involved in exercising the right to X, given our answer to 1.
Relevant to this discussion is Thi Nguyen (at the University of Utah) writing on transparency and surveillance: https://philarchive.org/rec/NGUTIS
The requirement itself would be fine, and even useful, in a sane time. The mandate, coming on the heels of anti-DEI legislation, is 100% going to be used to harass faculty/the university when an AI tool scrapes their syllabus for forbidden words.
It’s a difference in effort for the harasser filing a GRAMA request or getting a copy of a syllabus, and searching for “diverse” in a database and generating a list of profs’ names, office hours, and contact information.
Go to Cornell, with a distinguished study in the History of Science, to which has been added over the years the study of Philosophy of Science.
Oh yes, of course. Everyone interested student from Utah will just go to Cornell. Why didn’t someone think of this earlier?
OK, let’s talk about transparency. Why can’t the university publicly post the job acceptance rate and salary for each department per student? My daughter graduated in psychology and can’t support herself. When I worked on a PhD in the college of mathematics and physical sciences, I found out that the college was graduating 20% more PhD students than available jobs. University education should enhance student ability to participate in real life, not an ivory tower. Education should not result in a discovery of the secret that professors knew all along that your degree doesn’t count for much in the real world
Considering that most of the population of the State of Utah believes that a Hebrew tribe settled in North America and fought huge wars here, and cannot, despite actual archeological attempts, find any evidence of it, prove such, it doesn’t surprise me that they’d want to erase a history department.