This article is produced in collaboration between the Echo editorial board and our partners at the Clio History Journal. For more of their articles, click here.

---

Co-authored by: Kayvon Atherton, Hailey Strom, Colleen Ryan, and Evan Walker

Edited by Hailey Strom.

     There is a tragedy in the making in our university that most students are completely unaware of, but which they need to be. Western Connecticut State University’s administration has proposed a complete gutting of the Social Science Department due to recent evidence that suggests a decline of students taking on the major.

     The statistics uncovered were part of an external review of the Social Sciences Department, that focused on a five-year period of Fall enrollment into Bachelors of Arts degrees in Social Sciences, Anthropology / Sociology, Economics, Political Science, and Psychology. The data is public information in accordance with WCSU’s status as a state university. It should be noted Psychology was included in these figures, however, it is not a program under fire, as of yet, and is not formally part of the Social Sciences department. The numbers remained consistent, with a small decline until the pandemic hit.

     In 2017, there were 448 students enrolled in all of these programs, and in 2019 that number declined only to 434 students. However, from 2020 to 2021 the numbers dropped from 442 to 382 students, respectively. The evidence then, suggests that the decision is reflective of the broader decline in enrollment that occurred when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and could very well recover in the subsequent semesters.

     Those who are in support of this proposal include the Interim President Paul Beran, the CSCU Board of Regents, Provost Missy Alexander, and Dean of of Arts & Sciences Michelle Brown.

     The programs that have been recommended to shut down are as follows: Anthropology/Sociology, Social Sciences, Economics, and potentially Political Science. Additionally, minors in Anthropology, Conflict Resolution, Cultural Resource Management, Geography, International Studies, Multi-Cultural Studies including African American focus, Sociology, and Urban Studies are recommended for elimination.

     All of these majors are programs that every other credible institution in the area offers Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Fairfield, Trinity, Connecticut College, Yale, and Wesleyan all offer each these degrees. Most of these schools also offer distinct tracks and concentrations for their Liberal Arts & Science majors, which most programs at WCSU already do not have.

     For example, WCSU has a B.A. History, with only English being the only other major in the humanities, and a small handful of specialized minors such as philosophy and humanistic studies. Meanwhile, Fairfield University, for example, offers degrees in Art History, Black Studies, Classics, History, Latin American Civilizations, and Russian/Eastern European/Central Asian Studies.

     To compare, WCSU offers the following science majors: Biology with professional, ecological, and bioscience options. Chemistry offers an additional biochemistry option, and the mathematics B.A. offers a computer science concentration. WCSU also boasts computer science and nursing which have specializations of their own. Much more attention is and has been paid to STEM, and it is plainly reflected by the options currently offered.

     That is not to say that the sciences are any more or less important, it is merely proof that the university puts more money and effort into STEM. Stable funding rewards these students with an array of courses to take, and this variety allows them to focus more on a specific subset of the field they want to be a part of after graduation, whether it be a career or preparation for graduate school. This is something all students deserve, but something students in social science and humanities are not afforded.

      Yet the most damning part of this all is that the University’s overall enrollment has drastically fallen since 2017, not just within the social sciences department. The whole of WCSU declined from 2017 to 2021 by 17.9%, from around 5,100 to 4,100. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, this trend is reflected across the state and the country. The declines in the social sciences department seem significantly less of a cause for alarm when put in context with the rest of the university, the state, and the country.

Why does this matter? 

     The university potentially eliminating the social sciences department will reap malevolent consequences for all students and faculty at the school, not just those in the Social Sciences department itself. The History Department Co-Chair and professor, Dr. Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox, had this to say: “We cannot be a reputable university without programs in Economics, Anthropology/Sociology, and Political Science. These are areas of knowledge that have been central to a university education since the inception of modern universities more than 120 years ago… We would be alone in our inferiority in not offering these programs.”

     Universities which are no longer offering these degree programs, like Post University and the University of Bridgeport, are not seen as reputable institutions, rather, their credibility has been destroyed by cutting similar programs. Dr. Wilcox mentioned this as well, “In both cases, [Bridgeport and Post] these kinds of cuts destroyed the universities and left them as a shell of themselves. The University of Bridgeport has been sold off for parts. These cuts didn’t save these universities; they destroyed them completely.”

     As noted prior, the primary official reason for the proposed cuts is due to the recent enrollment problems. However, there is another problem: anecdotally, many high schoolers in the area see this institution as a second-rate university due to the lack of variety outside of STEM and business, and the cutting of these already overlooked programs would merely confirm this idea. This, in turn, could lead many to question if they wish to come to WCSU at all.

     Current students at WCSU have also anonymously commented that they would not pursue their master’s degree or Ph.D. with the university. Their reasoning was that many departments in the Liberal Arts School rely mainly on tenured faculty, and when these faculty leave or pass away, they are not being replaced due to the system-wide hiring freeze. This leaves major gaps in concentrations offered, and the variety of courses offered within them.

     A prime example of this comes from the history department; Professor Abubaker Saad, a Middle Eastern history professor, tragically passed away a few years ago, and the university have hired no one to replace him. This has left mainly exclusively U.S. and European history courses for majors to take. Some students see this as a potential plot to begin weening degree programs in the humanities off of the university as well.

     Another point that must be made is that this institution is not just a business that serves students as customers, but rather a public university. Any university, especially a state university’s, main goal should be giving a first-rate education, one that otherwise only the wealthy elite have access to, to underprivileged students across the tri-state area. By taking away the programs that private universities deem necessary, the meaning of a public state university is thrown away. To quote Professor Gadkar-Wilcox, “It does not therefore matter if our [humanities] programs survive if these programs are to die, because the reputation of the university will have been destroyed.”

     Without access to Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Government, and Political Science majors or courses, WCSU’s credibility and reputation as a first-rate public university will fall further.

     It is likely most undergraduate and graduate degrees, if this goes through, will be viewed as less than, and enrollment will only continue to plummet as students flock to the other schools where these programs are still offered. This, in turn, could potentially lead to the university shutting down as a whole, leaving students in Western Connecticut without an option to commute.

A Bigger Problem

     This, again, points towards an even bigger problem facing the country at the moment: the potential destruction of independent and critical thinking within higher education. Throughout recent years there has been a rise in the false belief that there are useless degrees. Such people claim that certain degrees, mainly those within humanities and social science, are useless and only serve as money pits, or are a fast track to working in fast food or retail. It is true that immediate job prospects for the liberal arts are not as high when compared to STEM and business, but they are still growing steadily.

     In the 21st century, there is the ever-present mindset that it’s impossible to get into a liberal arts field after graduation and therefore some believe their education was a farce. This is a problematic mindset, to say the least. With the academic culture in the United States shifting towards technology and security, this is the belief held by most people. Even students currently studying in these programs are anxious they will not be able to find a job after graduation.

     According to a survey done by Indeed some of the most important skills an employer searches for are problem-solving, research, working in teams, and communication skills. These are the principle skills that are taught in social science disciplines, and not all of these skills will be learned by STEM students.

     This points to the idea that this major choice is one of a business nature. The false ideology of “useless degrees” is really an attack on the critical thinking that all liberal arts disciplines pride themselves on. Social Sciences, as a umbrella, offers a variety of courses on politics, social theory, archaeological theory, lab methodology, research tools, and practically anything and everything in between. These are necessary skills that make these courses and degrees useful, practical, and academically rigorous.

     Professors within the social science department are prestigious, well-awarded, and dedicated members of academia. Dr. Hegel, anthropology chair and professor, was awarded the 2017 BOR award for Teaching Excellence, as did Dr. Williams, a political science professor. Dr. Hegel was also a recipient of a 2021 NEA grant which brought renowned Syrian artist, Mohammad Hafez, to campus last fall. Dr. Williams, Dr. Owoye, an economics professor, and Dr. Pan, also economics, all received SGA’s outstanding faculty award in recent years. To quote Dr. Zuohong Pan, “That demonstrates that Social Sciences faculty’s contribution and teaching services are and teaching services are recognized [sic].” Our educators are valued members of the community and cannot be shoved aside.

     Shutting down the social sciences department will only continue to push this false notion forward that social science is useless or out of date. Other universities may see it as a signal to shutter their programs in order to focus more on STEM and business. Students will see it as a sign that their passions are no longer relevant or are seen as useful to society, and may continue on to other fields leading to an overall shortage of working professionals.

     The attacks on the social science programs can be viewed as an attempt to have them replaced by STEM, healthcare, and business, the three most prestigious and monetarily successful fields. This should not continue on to be anything more than a proposal, and a serious discussion must be had between all parties, with the students’ well-being placed at the forefront, to come to a fair and justifiable conclusion.

Statements from university faculty, the Clio History Journal executive board, and students: 

1. Dr. Carina Bandhauer, Chair and Professor of Sociology: “Our department is composed of five disciplines: Anthropology (including Archaeology), Economics, Geography, Political Science, and Sociology. We are 9 full time faculty and about 18 part time faculty. We train students on a myriad of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) issues, public policy, local and global economics, and more. The department is home to experts on every on every region of the world, and our faculty are also one of the most diverse faculties in any department on campus. Even more importantly, a disproportionate number of students of color, economically challenged students, and women overall find a home in our department because the issues we teach and research on make a difference in their lives.”

     “We train students in research skills, policy formation, and cultural sensitivity among other things. These skills prepare students for not just one job, but for the 12 careers statisticians (who are social scientists) have shown to expect them to have in their lifetimes. As a great example, a former student emailed me last week saying, I’m a behavior analyst and I literally use the skills I learned in your classes every single day!’ Our students are clinical researchers, lawyers, public health administrators, forensic researchers, museum curators, archaeologists, social worker, human rights advocates, journalists, public policy makers, and more”

     “The value of our department is deeply woven into the fabric of a well-rounded education at WCSU. Our department is home to 94 students who major in either a combined major in Anthropology/Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Social Science: Social Justice and Policy*; or Social Science: Global Studies. Further, our small department serves more credit hours than any other department on campus: more than psychology, more than business, and on par with the entire School of Visual and Performing Arts combined, at WCSU. Some of our discipline this fall 2022 have enrollments near capacity at 97% (sociology); and overall we have a very high average enrollment of 83%, that with minor tweaks we can push even higher.”

     “Sadly, despite these facts, three of our fours majors and eight of our eleven minor have been recommended for deletion; even our strongest major, Political Science, was threatened to be “parked.” One of the main obstacles we face is the misaligned and misused rubric for low completing majors being used as an excuse to render our department void of value and to neglect our highly trained faculty. The misuse of this measure neglects known qualitative value. Most painful of all, we received memos the presidents, provost and dean, merely cc’ed us on regarding the elimination of our majors and minors. We received no direct communication and no direct invitation to work collaboratively. This is distressing to the students and faculty in our department and threatens the quality of education at WCSU”

     “We wish to emphasize that the Department of Social Sciences fully embraces the need to onboard more majors and to develop additional programs that attract and recruit freshman to the university. As proof of this, we coordinated and offered a Summer 2021 Social Justice Institute, and a Fall 2022 Social Justice Institute for high school students; and we have spent the last two years revising our majors which are just now rolling out; and we host and/or collaborate on dozens of speakers and campus events every year.”

     “We continue to welcome all opportunities to participate in certifications and collaborative programming. This is best accomplished not by deleting our current majors, but by enabling us to continue our efforts to attracts new students with new programming,  and to permit our *newly revised majors, some with a newly added option marked for deletion time to attracts students (notably, Social Science: Social Justice & Policy). For us to work efficiently and creatively, however, we need the threat of the demise of our entire department to be withdrawn: no one works well under such a traumatizing environment.”

     “Finally, we want to emphasize that currently, all students can still declare our majors and minors, and that all current majors and minors in the department are not in danger. We invite all current students to call our department home. It’s the future of incoming classes of students that is at stake wherein the university thinks it would save a few thousand dollars by cutting our upper division courses.”

2. Dr. Christine Hegel-Cantarella, Associate Chair and Associate Professor of Anthropology: “I’m so proud of the many initiatives that have come out of the Department of Social Sciences that expand our capacity for equity and inclusion at WCSU. Our faculty members have been integral to UndocuAlly, the Racial Justice Coalition, and the Social Justice Institute, for instance. Our students have worked as research assistants on projects studying the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable populations in New York City, have interned at refugee resettlement agencies, and have helped amplify the importance of indigenous histories through our partnership with the Institute for American Indian Studies. Because we teach our students how to do high-level qualitative and quantitative research and analysis, they are prepared to use these tools to create a more just and sustainable world. The proposal to close our programs because only have [sic] 94 majors and 21 minors across our 4 programs suggests that these students don’t matter to our administrators. I say they do matter – as do all the students who will come after them. My colleagues and I are fighting for the right of those future students to learn and collaborate in our department so they can become the next generation of changemakers.”
3. Dr. Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox, Co-Chair of the History Department and Professor of History and Non-western cultures: “Deciding educational content solely on the basis of major popularity is absurd. If every student wanted to major in underwater basketweaving, and no one wanted to take writing or math, would that be a sufficient warrant to change the curriculum? We should offer the education our students need, not just what they want.”

4. Dr. Anna Malavisi, Co-Chair for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies Department and Associate Professor in Philosophy: “The world we live in complex and complicated. To prepare our students for their lives going forward (not just for employment), they require an education that encompasses the liberal arts in the true sense of the term-an education that involves a number of disciplines from the arts and humanities (such as history and philosophy), as well as the social sciences which includes sociology, anthropology, economics and political science. Students exposed to all these disciplines have the opportunity to develop essential skills such as: critical analysis and reflection, productive inquiry, creative problem-solving and more. The recommended closures by the administrators greatly threatens the provision of such an education short-changing our students the opportunity of a well-rounded, integrated liberal arts education that will prepare them for the work force but also their lives.”

5. Madeline St. Amour, Communications Director for the Connecticut State University-American Association of University Professors: “WCSU-AAUP and CSU-AAUP condemn the proposed elimination of several major and minors in the Social Sciences Department at WCSU. The social sciences are a mainstay of general education. These proposed eliminations, if taken into effect, will irreparably harm the value of an education at WCSU, as well as set a chilling precedent for others. Perhaps most importantly, this decision is sure to harm our students by compromising the integrity of the liberal art education they receive as well as the futures of other departments.”

6. Hailey Strom, President of Clio: “The direction in which the university is proposing to take their investments, both monetarily and scholarly, is absurd and shocking. Social science is one of the foundational pillars of academia, and it serves as the sole bridge between the humanities and traditional science. It fills in important gaps of knowledge between the two disciplines and provides the much needed research on the progresses and pitfalls of every society on earth, and it equips students with the tools to study and help them further. Therefore, even the consideration to bar access to these vital academic programs, programs which provide a direct and substantial benefit to society, reflects most poorly on the university’s administration and therefore, unintentionally, onto its faculty and students.”

7. Kayvon Atherton, Vice President of Clio: “The cutting of the Social Science programs leads to a slippery slope that would eventually see the gutting of many Liberal Arts programs and the basis of critical thinking. Eventually this would lead to the attack on many other departments other than just the Social Science department. This action would turn our university into an utter joke that would see even more problems with enrollment. The gutting of these programs will lead WCSU to the fate of being little more than a glorified trade school, something that we should not allow in any way. The Social Sciences allow people to process complex ideas be it about ancient, or modern cultures, or be it social theory that helps shape the world and its ideals, a strike at one program should be viewed as a strike against all programs. This is an attack at critical thinking that MUST be resisted through protest.”

8. Colleen Ryan, Secretary of Clio: “The administration is ignoring the loyalty and dedication of their faculty. They have to face the consequences of the admin’s incompetence. The faculty stay with WestConn and do their jobs to the best of their ability despite the nonsense they’ve had to put up with from admin. The other faculty members will look at this decision and question why they want to stay at the university if their departments are at risk of being cut. The faculty deserves better, and the students deserve better. If the school goes through with this decision, they are shooting themselves in the foot and expecting the rest of the faculty and students to clean up the blood.”

9. Evan Walker, Treasurer of Clio: “It’s sad to see that Economics is not being treated as a 21st century career when it is as relevant and important as it always has been. It’s greatly disturbing to see a lack of dedication to scholarship.”

10. Dr. Katherine Allocco, History and Women’s Studies Program Professor: “Cutting courses, eliminating programs, offering students fewer opportunities and less flexibility will not increase enrollment. This is not a solution.”

11. Dr. Rotua Lumbantobing, Associate Professor of Economics, President of WCSU-AAUP: “The proposal to eliminate Anthropology, Sociology, and Economics, along with Meteorology, will hurt students and this university. First of all, the proposal is not going to save WCSU any money. Any stream of revenues generated by these programs will disappear. Moreover, students who take intro courses on these subjects and are interested in learning more will not be able to do so, which could prompt them to transfer out because it shows the university does not care what they want to learn. Meanwhile, cost will stay the same because full-time faculty are protected by the CSU-AAUP collective bargaining agreement. Sadly, the proposal will eliminate most, if not all, part-time faculty positions in the department, even though the savings from this are negligible to the university.”

     “More importantly, with this proposal. WCSU administration has declared that WCSU students – many of them are from working class background [sic], Black and brown students, and students from less privileged backgrounds – don’t deserve the same education opportunities as their counterparts at other institutions. The result is that Black, brown, and working-class people will have fewer options and an increasingly watered-down education from WCSU. Because let’s be clear: this proposal will diminish the value of a WCSU diploma, regardless of majors, because no university worthy of its name does not offer these programs as options for their students.

     “This proposal, if successful, will have these horrific consequences. The WCSU administration must withdraw this proposal if its cares at all about the students and this university.”

12. Dr. Eileen Campbell, Ed.D., APRN, ACNS-BC, CNS-CP, CNOR, Associate Nursing Professor and Program Coordinator: The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the national voice for academic nursing education endorses baccalaureate education for the preparation of nurses (AACN, 2021). In addition to nursing courses, pre-licensure nursing students in baccalaureate programs take courses in the social sciences that foster critical thinking skills and promote lifelong learning (AACN, 2021). The social sciences teach future nurses about the context of patient care; a context that is influenced by long standing and continuing inequities in society and health care. Nurses are now working in a fast paced technologically complex environment, where the economics of health care has a profound effect on patient care. Nurses prepared in our program currently have the option to take courses that inform them about the historical and economic influences in healthcare in the United States. However, all students are now engaging in a society where the recent pandemic highlighted social injustice, health care inequities and marginalization. The social sciences provide critical context to learning at the intersection of education and social justice. Our purpose at Western (across all disciplines) is to educate our students and that education must include the social sciences. While the current financial situation must be addressed, as a public university we have an obligation to continue to serve our community by offering affordable quality social science programs that improve and inform the human condition. Education should empower students to transform their own lives and the lives of others (Freire, 2000; Shor,1992).*

 *American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2021). The impact of education on nursing practice. Washington, DC: Author.

Freire, P., 2000. Pedagogy of the oppressed (30^th anniversary ed.)Continuum.

Shor, I., 1992. Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change. University of Chicago Press.

13. Dr. Stephen “Mitch” Wagener, Ecology and Climate Change Education Professor: “Climate change threatens the future of humanity. If we do not remediate the changes we have made in atmospheric chemistry, the increased heating WILL cause catastrophes and massive human suffering. While the effects of these varied catastrophes will be seen in the Earth’s climate, oceans, and ecosystems, the causes are human, results of our behavior and lack of understanding. As the causes are human, the remedies will require citizens with knowledge of economics, sociology, and political science, in addition to ecology and earth sciences. Therefore, I strongly believe that this is the wrong time to reduce the availability of social sciences and meteorology in our students’ educations.”

14. Dr. Daniel W. Barrett, Associate Chair and Professor of Psychology: “I am deeply dismayed by the administration’s intention to eliminate key majors in our liberal arts curriculum. I am concerned that this is the beginning of “death spiral of austerity” where supposedly money-saving cuts only exacerbate the problem. In this case, eliminating foundational majors may reduce the attractiveness of the university to potential students, thereby decreasing interest and enrollment, which will result in more cuts.”

15. Laiba Qureshi, WCSU Class of 2022: Political Science and Justice and Law Administration: “I am a recent graduate from Western Connecticut State University with a double major in Political Science and Justice & Law Administration. Majoring in political science offers the opportunity to understand the political aspects of society. Specifically, the major entails government work, legal processes, logical reasoning skills, and analytical competence. This major has helped me land an internship at Senator Christopher Murphy’s office and a job at a law firm. Taking classes such as International Relations, American Government, and Researching Social Issues has been so beneficial. The lessons taught in those classes applies to our political society and helped me understand how our country functions. I learned about the election process, the government, and foreign affairs procedure which is still applied today. Understanding the difficult political society guided me to become more confident in my choices which is all thanks to the social sciences department at WCSU. Please do not discontinue this department as it has shaped my understanding of the world and has taught me so much.”

16. Anonymous Professional Writing/Journalism Student: “I think the school getting rid of the social sciences majors and minors is ridiculous. A lot of students come here for some part of their degree, whether it be their major or minor, for some type of social science. The WCSU Board literally added more social science classes pertaining to BIPOC, woman, and other marginalized groups for the purpose of educating students on these groups so that WCSU’s negative past would not repeat itself. WCSU was also clearly trying to keep up with BLM, Me Too, and LGBTQ+ protests and movements. Why add these classes and extra minors if you were just going to take them away in the first place? Why take away classes that were added to show how “diverse” WCSU education is? It’s insulting to the students who major and minor in these courses.”

17. Anonymous Incoming Transfer Student, Psychology and International Studies: “As a student currently in the Transfer Pathways program, which Norwalk Community College offers in collaboration with WCSU, I was appalled when I heard about the possibility of department shutdowns, and began to rethink my entire future. This includes my enrollment at WCSU. Upon completion of my credits at NCC, why would I would transfer to a school that not only no longer offers courses in my field of interest, but has virtually done away with the entire department? This issue needs to be taken seriously and everyone should be involved in the decision because everyone will be affected by the outcome.”
18. Anonymous Musical Theater Student: “I think getting rid of these areas of study would be a great disservice to the student body and to the University as a whole. It is important that students have the opportunity to explore different areas of interest in their time here at WCSU and getting rid of Anthropology/Sociology, Social Sciences, Economics, and many other minors would deny them the chance to fully harness their passions and expand their academic horizons.”
19. Dr. Jennifer Ort, DNS, RNC MN-N, Associate Nursing Professor: “Offering a wide array of liberal arts education and degree programs is imperative in a liberal arts institution of higher education. In my opinion, eliminating these degree programs will undermine the mission of the university at large. There needs to be grander scale initiative to attract students to WCSU, highlighting the uniqueness that embodies this institution and the excellence in the education offered.”
20. Dr. Robert D. Whittemore, Anthropology Professor: “At their monthly meeting yesterday, Thursday, October 20th, the CONNSCU Board of Regents approved tuition increases at all four CSU college campuses for the coming academic year. At that same meeting, when asked, WCSU’s Interim President Beran descibed [sic] himself as having been hired by the BoR to cut what it had summarily chosen to describe since 2018 as “low completer” majors. In the eyes of the BoR, it would seem then that raising tuition while cutting student learning options will go far enough (regardless of the loss of foundational curricula at WCSU, and perhaps at other CSU campuses in the near future) to help resolve a financial crisis.”

         “An external consultancy’s review of our institutions fiscal profile, leading to the firing of our previous President of seven years, had revealed a financial crisis ten years in the making, a situation largely due to previously unacknowledged administrative mismanagement. Voting members of the BoR have hired our Interim President Beran from what is called “The Registry” of retired administrative educators, having made themselves available to effect solutions to educational institutions’ unmet challenges.”

         “Thus, our presumed fiscal “salvation” has prioritized WCSU’s Provost’s (Vice-President for Academic Affairs) recommendation to terminate student majors in Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, and perhaps even Political Science. American public universities in all fifty US states are meant to provide citizens, regardless of their family histories or financial challenges, preparation for productive futures through skill mastery.”

         “And yet, at the same time, universities such as WCSU must continue to provide the invitation and opportunity to consider a variety of career options through the college curriculum.  After all, presently only 20% of college youths are able to devote their lives to any of their previously chosen majors.  Nonetheless, our BoR, Interim President, and Provost would presume to terminate majors so as to be able to better predict the horizons for post-graduate working prospects.”

         “In a few words, learning “efficiencies” are to be enhanced by the BoR’s prescribed measure of  major “completion,” what the Regents assume is the sign of educational success. Current education research concludes otherwise.  For example, ten years out, already two or three career shifts beyond their own college “commencement,” the efficacy of students’ earlier learning process in the liberal arts reveals itself.  In the interim, flexibility of mind, adaptability at facing shifting prospects, coupled with the confidence to collaborate across differences and yet to lead… these capacities will have served them well.”

         “As a senior faculty member of nearly thirty years at WCSU, I recognize such research-grounded insight. Former students, now years into careers including the law, medicine, business, social work and education, have confessed that even a course or two in anthropology, even in other instances because of the full major (that includes a capstone of a required senior thesis based on their own original research) have provided a sense of the value of their own insights, serving them with accomplishments for which they continue to have been rewarded.”

         “I have eight colleagues in the other disciplines within the Department of Social Sciences who have shared such evidence of the impact of all of the four majors and minors we offer. At WCSU, two cultures now clash, one drawn to short-term, bottom-line efficiencies. The other accepts the complexities inherent to the freedom and the responsibility of a distinctly American liberal arts education, laying down as it does the foundation for an adaptive, informed, and engaged place in civil society. Are professors, who teach, research, and publish in their own professions, simultaneously committed to their students’ own prospects, to be held responsible to the point of losing curriculum (and eventually peer faculty) with which our students have every reason to expect access? We do our part, and more.”

          “But do not misunderstand, believing that the strong feelings among the faculty are based in a labor dispute between administration and faculty. We find ourselves in the position of needing to advocate for the futures of our students’ intellectual lives and the quality of their education that Connecticut taxpayers are funding. Given the sentiments and convictions expressed by the administration in place, it is hard to believe that they are equally concerned with continuing to provide a top-flight university education for students, both present and future. As part of Western Connecticut State University’s history in the making, would such loss be an appropriate response to administrative mismanagement of the institution for which the Board of Regents presumably should have provided flduciary [sic] oversight?“