Smackdown, academic style

[Elfwreck]

Last October, the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, The State University of New York (SUNY) disbanded its French, Italian, Classics, Russian and Theater Arts departments.

Gregory Petsko, a professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Brandeis University, had some sharp things to say about that:
A Faustian bargain: An open letter to George M Philip, President of the State University of New York At Albany

You gave several reasons for your decision, including that 'there are comparatively fewer students enrolled in these degree programs.' Of course, your decision was also, perhaps chiefly, a cost-cutting measure - in fact, you stated that this decision might not have been necessary had the state legislature passed a bill that would have allowed your university to set its own tuition rates. Finally, you asserted that the humanities were a drain on the institution financially, as opposed to the sciences, which bring in money in the form of grants and contracts.

Let's examine these and your other reasons in detail, because I think if one does, it becomes clear that the facts on which they are based have some important aspects that are not covered in your statement. First, the matter of enrollment. I'm sure that relatively few students take classes in these subjects nowadays, just as you say. There wouldn't have been many in my day, either, if universities hadn't required students to take a distribution of courses in many different parts of the academy: humanities, social sciences, the fine arts, the physical and natural sciences, and to attain minimal proficiency in at least one foreign language. You see, the reason that humanities classes have low enrollment is not because students these days are clamoring for more relevant courses; it's because administrators like you, and spineless faculty, have stopped setting distribution requirements and started allowing students to choose their own academic programs - something I feel is a complete abrogation of the duty of university faculty as teachers and mentors. You could fix the enrollment problem tomorrow by instituting a mandatory core curriculum that included a wide range of courses.

The letter is a masterpiece of wordsmithing, and an excellent example of how to berate and insult someone without resorting to crude language or ad hominem attacks.

[phenomshel]

Wow. That reminds me of the time I had a fight with a friend as a teenager. They went to my mom and said, "I think Shelly is mad at me, but I can't tell, because I only know half the words she used!" For the record, not one of them was profanity.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Last October, the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, The State University of New York (SUNY) disbanded its French, Italian, Classics, Russian and Theater Arts departments.

A minor correction: This was not SUNY but SUNY at Albany that made the change. SUNY is a statewide umbrella group that includes more than 100 university and college campuses. SUNY at Albany is one campus out of many. The decision was a local action not a systemwide action.