Save Philosophy Dept at Mills
Donation protected
Mills College President has announced her plans to effectively cut the Philosophy Department from Mills College by firing tenured professors Marc Joseph and Jay Gupta. This must be stopped! I've emailed the college president and trustees and have only gotten generic response to what I believe is an unacceptable solution to budget problems. Here is Professor Marc Joseph's letter asking for help:
Mills College Philosophy alumnae,
You will have read by now that the Mills Board of Trustees (BOT) has declared “a state of financial emergency” and arrogated to itself power to dismiss tenured professors. Unless the administration changes course, the Provost will announce faculty lay-offs starting on June 6, and Jay and I believe with a reliable degree of confidence that at least one of us may be fired.
How we arrived here is a long story, and most of you know many of the details. These are difficult times across higher education, and Mills faces special challenges. I’m happy to explain in detail my understanding of our budget situation, if you’re interested, but the bottom line is that firing tenured professors is throwing people out the window, and you throw people out the window only if the building is being consumed by flames. And (not to press the metaphor too far), Mills is *not* a building on fire – it is past time to put our budget in order, but abrogating tenure is a rash and radical step, and the faculty believes it is the wrong course.
(FYI, the President says that she has suspended, not eliminated tenure, but that misunderstands the logic of rights: it’s empty to say I’ll respect your rights tomorrow while I violate them today.)
Now I’m going to get personal. I can hardly articulate what it’s meant to me to have spent hours with you philosophizing about truth, God, meaning, good and evil, freedom, and even modus ponens – being your teacher has been part of my telos as a human being, and the thought of being separated from Mills is sad beyond words.
If your Mills philosophy education has been important to you, I ask you to write and share that fact and your experiences with the administration and the BOT. What has your Mills philosophy education meant to you (whether you were a major, a minor, or just took courses with me or Jay)? How has it shaped your goals, and how has it helped you achieve those goals? And I ask that you put in a particular word for Jay or me (inclusive “or”).
Please, please donate anything you can to help me save the Philosophy Department and these tenured professors who have shaped me into the successful, independent, open minded woman that I am. Without philosophers the world would be lost.
Mills College Philosophy alumnae,
You will have read by now that the Mills Board of Trustees (BOT) has declared “a state of financial emergency” and arrogated to itself power to dismiss tenured professors. Unless the administration changes course, the Provost will announce faculty lay-offs starting on June 6, and Jay and I believe with a reliable degree of confidence that at least one of us may be fired.
How we arrived here is a long story, and most of you know many of the details. These are difficult times across higher education, and Mills faces special challenges. I’m happy to explain in detail my understanding of our budget situation, if you’re interested, but the bottom line is that firing tenured professors is throwing people out the window, and you throw people out the window only if the building is being consumed by flames. And (not to press the metaphor too far), Mills is *not* a building on fire – it is past time to put our budget in order, but abrogating tenure is a rash and radical step, and the faculty believes it is the wrong course.
(FYI, the President says that she has suspended, not eliminated tenure, but that misunderstands the logic of rights: it’s empty to say I’ll respect your rights tomorrow while I violate them today.)
Now I’m going to get personal. I can hardly articulate what it’s meant to me to have spent hours with you philosophizing about truth, God, meaning, good and evil, freedom, and even modus ponens – being your teacher has been part of my telos as a human being, and the thought of being separated from Mills is sad beyond words.
If your Mills philosophy education has been important to you, I ask you to write and share that fact and your experiences with the administration and the BOT. What has your Mills philosophy education meant to you (whether you were a major, a minor, or just took courses with me or Jay)? How has it shaped your goals, and how has it helped you achieve those goals? And I ask that you put in a particular word for Jay or me (inclusive “or”).
Please, please donate anything you can to help me save the Philosophy Department and these tenured professors who have shaped me into the successful, independent, open minded woman that I am. Without philosophers the world would be lost.
Organizer
Rhiannon Hecht
Organizer
Scotts Valley, CA
