Whittier Update

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Mail*Link(r) SMTP               Whittier Update

TO THE PALEO COMMUNITY



The last two weeks have been filled with highs and lows.  The members of the
Whittier College geology department are humbled by the support we have
received from numerous sources.  (This afternoon I counted more than 50
friends, colleagues, and alums who have written to the Dean in support of the
geology program.)  Because this event seems to have raised so much interest
and concern, I felt that I should share with you what has transpired since my
first panic.

The issue on campus has two distinctive aspects--what was done and how it was
done.  Dean Richard Millman's total absence of consultation with the affected
departments or any representative body of the faculty before announcing his
proposal at a Board of Trustees meeting has raised the eyebrows (if not the
ire) of many of the faculty members on this campus elsewhere.  Our Faculty
Executive Council (the elected officers of the Faculty) is pursuing this
matter.  The geology department has focused on the substance of the proposal.

Millman has stated that this move was driven by his perception of the need to
reallocate faculty resources (although he has not said what areas are likely
to be the beneficiaries).  Thus, this is not being presented as a
"cost-cutting" move, rather it is this dean's notion that in order for other
disciplines to be enriched, geology should be sacrificed.  Millman's
explanation for his decision to eliminate the geology department involves the
relatively small number of majors in the program (and therefore the low
enrollment in courses for the major) and the centrality of geology to the
mission of the college.  In more than one for forum he has now stated that
when he looked at the "low enrolled" departments he identified five:  French,
physics, religious studies, philosophy, and geology.  He has continued that
he could not imagine a liberal arts college without French, physics, or
philosophy, and that, given Whittier's Quaker heritage, he felt that
religious studies was essential here.  That left geology.  (I should note
that he also proposed closing our department of speech pathology and
audiology (SPA) for reasons of mission, not enrollment.)

Two weeks ago tomorrow, Millman's proposal was first publicly presented to
the faculty at a meeting of our Educational Policies Committee.  He outlined
his proposal for the committee and the affected departments were then given
an opportunity to respond.  I spoke about the accomplishments of our
department, its faculty and students, but tried to focus my remarks on the
importance of geology as a discipline.  As the only department at Whittier
that concerns the Earth and the only discipline that speaks to issues of
global environment and the immediacy of geological processes on an active
plate margin, I agued that (biased as I am) I could not imagine a quality
liberal arts college in California WITHOUT a geology department.  These same
themes have been sounded repeatedly in many of the letters of support.  The
members of EPC and other faculty members in attendance asked questions of the
dean.  Eventually, the committee decided to take up the question again at it
next meeting (which is tomorrow) when the departments would be given the
opportunity to organize their thoughts and make a more formal response.

Last Friday the faculty of our science division (biology, chemistry, physics,
geology, and math) met to consider a group response to the proposal.  We
presented our case to our colleagues and talked at length about the impact of
the proposal on all the sciences at Whittier.  The outcome of this meeting
will be a consensus statement of support for the geology program.  The social
science division will meet for a similar purpose tomorrow.  We will wait to
see what that produces.

Tomorrow's meeting of EPC is likely to be extremely important, but probably
not decisive.  I truly do not have any certain sense of what the outcome will
be.  I cannot thank those who have offered suggestions, ideas, and support
sufficiently for their concern.  I want to take special note of the help we
have received from GSA.  I've had several conversations with Eldridge Moores,
as current president of GSA, and Ed Geary, director of education.  I think we
all now understand the need to be prepared for these events.

The lights aren't going out yet at least.  I will let everyone know what
happens.

Dallas D. Rhodes, Chair
Department of Geology
Whittier College
Whittier, CA 90608