Friends,
We apologize for the long silence. As many of you know, college bureaucracies are slow moving creatures, when they move at all. Unfortunately, there has not been substantial movement and so there is only a bit of good news to share.
Our formal request to be removed from the realignment plan, or for a coherent justification for why we were included in the first place, submitted to OIC Neisser on March 15, 2022, has fallen on deaf ears. OIC Neisser has made a slight concession – the terms for being removed from provisional status for all affected programs are now open to negotiation with the Dean of Arts and Sciences who will, in theory, have the final say in what those terms look like.
Since we don’t understand why we were included in the plan to start with, other than magically conjuring new majors without a department (which is still slated for dissolution and merger by the end of the semester) it isn’t clear what we will be negotiating. Given our history over the last 7 years, as we have gone from 4 to 2 faculty, we are certain the dissolution and merger of the department clearly signals that we should not expect to be allowed to hire a desperately needed ethicist. While it will be exceedingly difficult for the two of us to deliver the major and our General Education obligations, perhaps the concessions made prolong our demise somewhat, even if they haven’t made that demise any less inevitable.
We requested permission from Dr. Neisser to publish his response to our formal request. He did not grant that permission, so you will have to take our word for it that in that response he failed to offer any justification for the philosophy department’s being included in the realignment plan. In place of that response, we have included on our webpage (www.sunypotsdamphilosophy.com an email OIC Neisser sent to the entire campus community in which he formally adopts the realignment plan, with some slight modifications, as indicated above.
Our petition will remain active, so please continue to spread the word and write letters. We thank you again for your support.
P.S. Some good news is that the Art History major has been moved from immediate dissolution to provisional status. Combined with the compromise noted above, this means that while our campaign has not done much to benefit our own position, it has made a difference for a number of other Arts and Sciences disciplines. While we have been disappointed by the lack of resistance from other departments, particularly other departments in the Arts & Sciences, please recognize that it is not just the philosophy faculty who owe thanks to each one of you for your support, but all of SUNY Potsdam. On their behalf, and our own, thank you for speaking out on behalf of philosophy and the liberal arts.