advice

[Michael McIntyre]

I know a little bit about the Wash U closing, since I was an undergrad there from 76-80 and taught there in 92-93.  Here it wasn't just the grad program closing down, it was the whole department.  The undergrad major was abolished, and the remaining faculty were dispersed among other departments (political science and anthropology, chiefly).  Not much damage was done to the sitting sociology faculty, since most of them had been around for a very long time and were not on the market.  This was the last act in a war of attrition.  No one in the sociology program had received tenure in over 15 years before the program was shut down.  No senior hires were made.  Senior faculty who retired or died were often not replaced.  (The handwriting should have been on the wall in 1982 when Al Gouldner died and the university immediately announced there would be no search).  By the late 1980s, the administration was shocked - SHOCKED! - to discover that a once-strong program had precipitousl!
y slipped.  A committee was duly appointed, reporting that the resources it would take to rebuild the department were substantial.  The provost then brought the ax down.  About a year later, he nearly lost his job for it, but some quick deals with favored departments saved his neck in a close faculty vote.  I don't know what happened to the few graduate students, but it can't have been good.  Luckily, there were few left by that time anyway.

Michael McIntyre


>>> lbolist at myrealbox.com 05/14/01 03:34PM >>>
So, all you wonderful academic types, I have a question for 
you.  In academia, what happens when a department has its 
graduate program shut down?  I have been told by survivors 
that it is not good.  It is a sign that there was something 
wrong with the department--it's read that way, anyway, even 
though it may not be objectively true.  However, others 
have said that this isn't necessarily the case. It will all 
depend on the individual and their ability to demonstrate 
themselves capable of quality work in terms of a scholarly 
research program.

I took the word of a friend, too, that was a survivor of 
the Wash U closing. And someone else from Rochester's 
closing.  She found that it was nothing but bad news to be 
affiliated with that department that closed -- IF you 
wanted to work in academia.

Given that it happens rarely, it seems that it might be a 
good idea to ask people from other fields.

TIA

kell