UNC Asheville Chancellor Kimberly van Noort has proposed eliminating the Department of Philosophy and the philosophy major program at the school.

Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Drama, Religious Studies, and the French and German concentrations in Languages and Literatures are also among the programs the chancellor is suggesting be cut.

The cuts are intended to help alleviate a “structural deficit forecast at approximately $6 million” owed to several factors, including “an enrollment decline of about 25 percent,” van Noort said in a statement announcing the proposed cuts. In addition to the academic cuts, van Noort proposed eliminating two administrative positions and consolidating two others.

Van Noort’s statement provides no details as to how much closing the academic programs will save the University, though the cuts will involve terminating many faculty positions. The Department of Philosophy has six faculty, all but one of whom appears to be tenured.

The statement does not say whether any philosophy courses would be offered at UNC Asheville if the cuts are enacted.

UNC Asheville professor of religious studies Rodger Payne says:

The idea that if you’re going to get a liberal arts degree that you’re now going to do it without encountering philosophy, the classics, religious studies — just seems absolutely unconscionable to me. That’s the core of who we are as a liberal arts institution. I’m not sure we’re going to be able to claim that title anymore.

According to the Citizen Times, the proposal will go before the UNC System Board of Governors at its July 25th meeting.

UPDATE (6/18/24): A letter-writing campaign in support of saving the Department of Philosophy and the philosophy major at UNC Asheville has been launched. Details about the campaign and various talking points are here. The organizers note that time is of the essence, and ask that letters be sent to Chancellor van Noort and President Hans by Monday, June 24th.

Among other things, the philosophy faculty note:

Our department’s longstanding tradition of campus citizenship means all PHIL faculty contribute extensively outside our home department. The 2024 APR Study [on which the Chancellor based her recommendations] does not adequately represent, indeed blatantly misrepresents, the contributions our department makes to the institution; it has not merely discounted but has rendered invisible more than half of our work. This illogical and fallacious approach eclipses the true measure of our impact and effectively treats our purposeful and far-ranging contributions as demerits.

Read more here.

UPDATE (6/24/24): Martha Nussbaum (Chicago) has written a letter in support of the philosophy program at UNC Asheville. You can read it here.

UPDATE (6/26/24): The Board of the American Philosophical Association (APA) has issued a letter to UNC Asheville’s administration regarding the proposed elimination of the philosophy major and department there. It reads, in part:

UNC Asheville describes itself as “North Carolina’s designated public liberal arts and sciences university,” providing an education that “prepares students for lives of leadership and service with an emphasis on critical thinking, clear and thoughtful expression, applied research, community engagement, free and open inquiry, and undergraduate and graduate programs that address the most pressing issues of our time.” It would be difficult to argue that UNC Asheville is fulfilling its mission or living up to its commitment to liberal arts education were it to eliminate its philosophy program.

Philosophy is an absolutely core liberal arts discipline, dedicated to critical thinking, clear communication, and ethical reasoning. More than perhaps any other discipline, philosophy prepares students to be engaged, well-rounded citizens and leaders with exactly the skills that UNC Asheville aims to cultivate…

In addition to those general reasons, the philosophy department at UNCA provides powerful specific reasons to retain philosophy at the center of the liberal arts education that defines UNC Asheville’s institutional identity. Its faculty have been consistent and dedicated contributors to the core Humanities liberal arts curriculum (as well as other programs), devoting nearly 60% of their total teaching to courses that serve the university beyond the department.

Further, in terms of market value and equipping students with skills employers desire, philosophy is perhaps the best humanities major a student could choose. Philosophy teaches skills that are highly valued by employers and that are transferable as the kinds of jobs available to workers change over time: critical thinking, creative problem solving, written and oral communication, and logical analysis. Renowned investor William H. Miller recently invested $75 million in Johns Hopkins University’s philosophy program, saying, “I attribute much of my business success to the analytical training and habits of mind that were developed when I was a graduate student [in philosophy] at Johns Hopkins.”… Miller’s conviction based on his own experience is backed up by general data about employment and professional success. A philosophy major or minor is a classic gateway to a career in law, and philosophy majors routinely outperform nearly all other majors on the LSAT, GRE, and GMAT. According to the Payscale.com 2015–2016 report, those with a BA in philosophy have the highest pay over time of all humanities majors, significantly outranking disciplines such as English literature and history… Philosophy majors’ mid-career earning potential is ahead of majors in many fields outside the humanities, including biology, psychology, political science, and business. At a time when career outcomes are so important to students and parents, it is unwise to disinvest in a program that offers these career benefits.

We understand the desire of university administrators to make decisions based on numerical metrics such as majors or cost. But such metrics significantly undervalue what your philosophy program offers—it plays a pivotal role not only for majors and minors but also in core curricula and interdisciplinary programs. For UNCA, philosophy’s role in the Humanities core has been indispensable in the past, and the discipline’s importance for a wide range of interdisciplinary studies guarantees that it will remain relevant in the future. Courses such as Philosophies of Power in Societies, Philosophies of Art, Environmental Ethics, Africana Philosophy, Philosophy and the Good Life, Philosophy of Human Rights, Knowledge and Reality, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Law, and Philosophy of Science all serve students pursuing a variety of degrees and careers. It would be impossible for UNC Asheville to offer these high-quality courses if the philosophy program were eliminated.

Moreover, it is not clear that the elimination of the philosophy program would address the structural budget deficit said to necessitate the proposed cuts. Given the comparatively low cost of maintaining a philosophy department (relative to most STEM departments, for example), there is a strong case to be made that the philosophy program is a contributor to the institutional budget, rather than a drain on it. Moreover, the UNCA philosophy major is relatively popular: it represents a higher percentage of majors within the student body as a whole than the national average. And the philosophy faculty are highly regarded—within and beyond UNCA—for their award-winning scholarship, service teaching, and renowned annual undergraduate philosophy conference, and also for a substantial tradition of university leadership and high administrative service. In that light, it is troubling that the process leading up to these proposed cuts has lacked transparency and appears not to have included appropriate consultation with faculty governance and academic leaders. Proceeding with this plan would be shortsighted and strike at the very heart of UNC Asheville, an institution known for its liberal arts mission and interdisciplinary humanities core.

You can read the whole letter here.