Posted on 05/08/2019 6:10:32 AM PDT by reaganaut1
On April 11, the administration of the University of Tulsa shocked faculty, students, and alumni by announcing the elimination of 40 percent of the school’s academic programs. Undergraduate and graduate programs in theater, musical theater, dance, vocal and instrumental music, English, history, philosophy, religion, chemistry, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Latin, anthropology, mathematics, and many others were axed. The administration has eliminated all academic departments and dumped professors, now stripped of disciplinary protections and powers, into big new divisions, including one called “Humanities and Social Justice.”
Administrators at other colleges and universities have recently cut the liberal arts. But TU is the first top-100 research institution, and the first university with a ten-figure endowment—$1.1 billion, to be precise—to have done so. What is more, our administration did all this under a cloak of secrecy and without consulting faculty.
The restructuring appears, among other things, to be a hostile takeover of the university by some of Tulsa’s richest and most powerful corporate interests. The gory details, already well known to many who follow higher education, are available in my essay “Storm Clouds Over Tulsa” at City Journal. But what that essay doesn’t cover is the wholesale rejection of the ironically named “True Commitment” plan by faculty, students, and alumni, and the administration’s highly authoritarian countermeasures to this rejection.
After the restructuring bombshell exploded in a slick, highly orchestrated rollout on the morning of April 11, students and faculty moved to protest quickly and decisively. That evening, I wrote to about 50 faculty and 500 students and alumni inviting them to attend a meeting in the Department of Languages the following day, and I pasted into the email an unedited version of my City Journal article.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
I realize mathematics has been listed as an "art" in universities, but not sure why it was eliminated. A background in mathematics can sometimes pivot into engineering, physics, statistics, business, ...
They didn’t delete Spanish language from their departments. Wonder why?
Good catch. It looks like they gutted every other traditional liberal arts course. What's left is probably just a bunch of "studies" majors instead of a traditional liberal arts education.
Higher ed is in for some radical restructuring in the near future. This is just an opening salvo.
Thanks to the progressive penchant for exposing their lack of any quality related to a successful culture, this university has self identified as a trans-academic institution. They want all true studies eliminated in order to complete the transition to a totally worthless collection of buildings.
Avoid that place like the plague.
Or chemistry. Usually a path to medical school.
And they expect the currently students to continue their academic pursuits at this particular college?
Expect many transfers...out.
Without those subjects in the course offerings how can this place even be called a University anymore?
Sounds like somebody got rid of all the basket weaving courses and are refocusing on actual teaching.
The administration has eliminated all academic departments and dumped professors, now stripped of disciplinary protections and powers, into big new divisions, including one called "Humanities and Social Justice."
Guess again.
The way I read it, the U eliminated MAJORS in those departments. They didn’t eliminate all the courses under those headings.
I cqn’t imagine a university that doesn’t offer — or even require — some math and English courses.
Would love to know how many Hollywood stars have a degree in theatre... One of the most ridiculous majors to go in debt for.
And now, no tenure, I’ll wager.
And the article said that some of the professors who had been doing research projects were now expected to do teaching. The African American woman who spent all her time researching the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 complained about this in the article.
And to this I say: So what?
Private school. They can do as they please. They found waste and cut it out.
“Private school. They can do as they please. “
And they’ll have to explain the change to current and future students and parents.
I don’t get the rationale for mathematics or chemistry. These are valuable to those seeking engineering or medical careers. Some of the languages could be beneficial too, like French, German, Russian, and Chinese. Possibly Greek and Latin. The rest...more fluff than anything.
So they eliminated English, history, chemistry, and mathematics, among others. No mention of Biology set for elimination even though most biology professors don’t know the difference between a boy and a girl.
And they keep victimology (“Humanities and Social Justice.”).
My nephew has already moved to another university. Boy are his parents angry!
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