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University/College
Elizzybeth:
Ah. So it's the old argument about the importance of the humanities in general (emphasis on the "old": Plato banning the artists from his Republic, etc.). Not something I want to get into here, really. I only asked because I thought you might have taken some particular umbrage with the diabetes studies comment. Suffice to say, most people agree with you.
For the record, though, the field that I'm going into boasts a 95-100% tenure-track placement rate of PhD graduates, which is significantly better than the placement rate for law school grads, into jobs that pay at the higher end of the academic pay scale. These jobs do, at least in my obviously biased mind, contribute to the "betterment of society": writing program administrators design curriculum for first-year composition courses, train teaching associates, and direct writing centers, in addition to their duties as professors. The things people say about English majors' job prospects--I can't tell you how many times I've heard the Starbucks-barista-for-the-rest-of-your-life crack--simply aren't true of people going into Composition and Rhetoric.
KvP:
So John Jay is out - heard from my department chair that their program, while accredited, is not particularly well regarded. And he knows the assistant dean of admissions at Northeastern who says the MPA program is definitely still in, so Northeastern is back on the table.
Oh well!
look out! Ninjas!:
--- Quote from: Gemmwah on 03 Mar 2011, 08:36 ---Nominations for the student board close in less than 24 hours. My manifesto is written, all questions asked have been answered, my publicity has been designed and printed, and all I need now is a thumb drive to save it all to, a couple of passport photos, and a tenner. Then I will officially be a candidate for the UPSU student elections this year and I am going to kick so much ass WOOOWOWOWOWOWOOOOO!
--- End quote ---
I hated my LSS the first year I was involved but this year I am in charge of the sponsorship portfolio and it's pretty fantastic.
tania:
--- Quote from: clownshoe on 03 Mar 2011, 22:38 ---lucrative career.
--- End quote ---
grad school is lucrative? where are these money-making programs and why didn't anyone tell me before i signed up for this bullshit
also speaking of "useless" humanities here is a fun email i got from vancouver island university a couple of weeks ago which actually made my blood boil (these specific parts are highlighted)
--- Quote ---Dear Colleagues,
I apologize for the length of this e-mail, which details devastating budget cuts to the Department of Sociology at Vancouver Island University (VIU).
The Sociology Department has been directed to cut $160,000 from our operating budget. We have yet to crunch the numbers, but this reflects in the range of 12 to 15 sections out of our "magic number" of 30 sections (the total number of sections we can offer). We have three part time and three full time faculty members in the department of Sociology.
If this cut goes through as presented, it will leave us with between 15 and 18 sections in total. We will immediately lose two faculty members, and the workload of a third member will likely be greatly reduced (this will depend on the number of sections cut). We will immediately lose our Major, and it is not clear that we will be able to offer a Minor. These cuts are particularly troubling given that we, like every other department in the Social Sciences, are operating at or near capacity. Given the very high demand for all Social Science courses, we find this targeted cut perplexing and deeply disturbing, particularly because we have not been presented with a rationale for why the Sociology department was cut so deeply.
We, like other departments, were expecting that the budget cuts would affect us, but we were not prepared to have our program essentially cancelled. We are trying to absorb the news, working together to strategize as to how to respond, and plan for the effects on our students. With the potential lay-off of three of our faculty members, and with one member on leave, this very difficult work falls in the hands of a few people. We are deeply concerned that a department of 15 to 18 sections is simply not viable, and that our remaining faculty will be vulnerable in the next round of budget cuts.
In addition to our Major and Minor, we play a key role in the Global Studies program, provide electives for the Criminology program and upper level courses for the Women's Studies program, provide courses for the new Political Studies Major, and support to a wide range of programs across campus. We feel that this proposed cut greatly devalues the hard work that we have been doing in the Faculty. We are greatly concerned that the discipline itself will disappear from the intellectual landscape in the Faculty of Social Sciences, and at VIU. In essence, it suggests to us that our department is not of value to the university as a whole, or to the Faculty of Social Sciences.
In this fiscal climate, we do not see that recovery from this kind of cut would be possible, and indeed we believe that the cuts will make it impossible for us to do anything other than service other departments at the first and second year levels. As you might expect, this dramatically alters the working lives of those few department members who have not lost their positions.
Given the discipline's often low public profile, we feel it is important that our colleagues at other institutions know what is happening to Sociology at VIU. In most universities Sociology departments are highly valued and play a key part in the intellectual life of the academy. We are more than saddened that this voice may be silenced at VIU, worried that it may happen at other institutions, and we would appreciate any insight, perspective, or help you might have to offer. Outrage works too.
If you're still reading -- thank you for your patience and support.
--- End quote ---
nnnggghhgghhhhhhh
pwhodges:
Oh dear - I thought that sort of thing was a UK special, right now.
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