Istvan Berkeley sends this report on the closure of the cognitive science program at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the firing of two of his colleagues. As always, cutting of state income taxes for the top bracket is what created much of the phony "crisis" that enables attacks on public education.
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On The Demise of the UL Cognitive Science Ph.D. Program
Forty years ago, someone might have thought it a prudent move, in fiscally challenging times, to get rid of a program in computer science. Back then, computer science was a relatively obscure and esoteric discipline. Today, we would consider any such judgment to have been a major mistake. However, hindsight is always 20/20.
Recently, the cognitive science Ph.D. Program at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette was terminated. Given that, as a discipline, cognitive science has only been with us since the mid-1970s, the situation may well be analogous to the one with computer science forty years ago.
Cognitive science is dedicated to understanding how information is processed by cognitive agents, be they human, animal and (perhaps controversially) artificial. It is one of the most interdisciplinary subject areas, employing methods and techniques from psychology, computer science, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics and a host of other disciplines. It is too early to tell whether it will prove as transformative as computer science, but it has great potential to inform education, medicine and many aspects of our lives.
The situation at UL Lafayette is more dire than this simple recounting of the basic facts suggests, though. First, two tenured faculty members have been issued termination notices. Second, the process by which the program was terminated was far from usual.
Doctoral programs are required to graduate an average of two students a year, in order to avoid low completer status. The UL cognitive science program has graduated ten students in the last five years, eight students in the last four years, but only five students in the last three years. As such, the program had potential to be classified as a low completer. However, low completer status is supposed to be based upon long term trends, not periodic fluctuations.
When the program was assessed by UL internally, it was recommended for continuance. The UL System also recommended that the program be continued. Initially, even the Board of Regents staff recommended continuance. Then, something changed and the recommendation became to terminate the program. How was this alternative conclusion reached? In the words of the UL Provost, “The decision was made following phone conversations with the BOR [Board of Regents] academic affairs staff.” So, the recommendations of all the appropriate decision making bodies were trumped by a simple telephone call? It appears that consultation and due process were thrown out the window in this case. This is certainly a cause for grave concern.
Were this matter to end at this point, it might merely be a case of a squandered opportunity and short term thinking, trumping intellectual leadership in an emerging discipline with tremendous potential. Unfortunately, policy changes have made this circumstance into a full blown tragedy.
Recently, the UL System radically revised their policies on program discontinuance. These changes have garnered sharp criticism from The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in a special statement, and have been broadly criticized in the national media for removing the protections of tenure from professors in the UL System. Unfortunately, these changes, in conjunction with some local ones on the UL Lafayette campus, have made the termination of two tenured professors possible. So, that one telephone call and the policy changes now mean that two faculty will soon be without jobs. This makes the situation concerning the UL cognitive science program more than a mere wasted opportunity and turns it into a human catastrophe, with careers interrupted, families uprooted and all the other associated malaises of such situations.
Fortunately, there has been some sympathetic coverage in the press and on the TV. The story was broken by Lafayette's Daily Advertiser (link) and a follow up story ran on Lafayette's KATC TV-3 (link). The story was also featured on the national website InsideHigtherEd (link). See also this story in the Baton Rouge Advocate (link). The response from the university has been to invoke a traditional claim about a need for cost savings. This is of limited plausibility, as funding changes are less than 3% this year. Perhaps more ominously, the administration continues to threaten that more terminations of tenured faculty may follow.
So, what can be learned from this sorry state of affairs? First, it appears that due process is no longer relevant in Louisiana higher education, as the recommendations of legitimate authorities can be trumped by a single telephone call. Second, higher education institutions in Louisiana only consider the very shortest of terms in their academic planning. All the monies, time and effort invested in establishing the cognitive science program will now be wasted. Third, academic performance is not a guarantee of program longevity. Graduates from the UL cognitive sciences program have a placement rate that is substantially better than national averages. Graduate students in the program are also some of the most productive, in terms of peer reviewed publications. Yet, apparently this makes no difference to an administration on a mission with access to a telephone. Finally, it suggests that all the standard rhetoric about a 'commitment to quality and excellence' at UL Lafayette is nothing but a sham.
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