Vermont Business Magazine A coalition of University of Vermont students and faculty will hold an all-day, online “teach-in” to spotlight the value of threatened teachers and fields of study and reveal the truth about the artificial “structural deficit” in the College of Arts and Sciences: Wednesday, February 3, from 9 am to 5 pm, via YouTube Livestream on the UVM United Against the Cuts channel.
The teach-in, with live captioning, can be viewed through this link: https://youtu.be/VSjVQKL-TKI
The event comes just one day before university trustees meet to begin discussing a proposal to close down the departments of Classics, Religion, and Geology and eliminate more than 25 majors, minors, and programs in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The coalition, UVM United Against the Cuts, argues that these closures plus the firing of the three long-time instructors will not only limit students’ educational options and seriously damage the University’s reputation, but are also financially unnecessary.
For decades faculty and staff have dedicated themselves to building the University of Vermont’s reputation as a public ivy, a rare state university that combines the expansive opportunities of a research institution with the intellectual rigor and individual attention of a liberal arts college.
In the past five years, however, administrative priorities—including systematic underfunding of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and overspending on extra-academic amenities, consultants, and administration—have undermined UVM’s promise to its students and its reputation for excellence.
CAS is at the heart of the university’s mission to provide a comprehensive liberal arts education, offering courses in natural science, social science, humanities, and the arts, which are essential to the education of students in all seven of UVM’s undergraduate degree-granting colleges. Now UVM’s hard-won reputation is imperiled by a manufactured budget crisis. What UVM faces, teach-in participants assert, is not a financial crisis but a values crisis.
Faculty-taught classes include “Why Religion? Why Liberal Arts?”, “Classics and Crisis: An Ancient Response to a Disastrous State of Affairs,” “Not Just ‘Narcos’: Why We Need Latin American Studies,” and “How UVM Geology Students Are Helping to Solve Vermont’s Environmental Problems.”
Each class, planners explain, will highlight the vitality of the liberal arts education that benefits all UVM students plus the gaps in knowledge that the planned cuts and closures will create. For instance, senior lecturer James Williamson, targeted for termination after 31 years of service, will lead a class on Native American literature—a subject that will vanish from the curriculum if the cuts are not reversed.
Also featured will be two sessions on the myths v. facts of UVM budget and spending priorities plus a panel discussion with students and alumni who combined STEM and business majors with a second major or minor in the liberal arts.
A full teach-in schedule follows and is available on the UVM United Against the Cuts campaign website. UVM United Against the Cuts can also be found on Facebook or followed on Twitter and Instagram.
UVM United Against the Cuts Teach-In
Wednesday, February 3
Schedule of Classes
9-9:25 am Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, Religion, “Why Religion? Why Liberal Arts?”
9:30-9:55 am Helen Scott and Felicia Kornbluh, English and History, “Alternative Full Professor Lectures”
10-10:25 am Charles-Louis Morand-Métivier, Romance Languages and Cultures, “Not Everybody Speaks English! The Importance of Teaching Foreign Languages and Cultures in a Globalized World”
10:30-10:55 am Jacques Bailly, Classics, “Why Having a ‘Classics’ Department Matters to Something that Wants to Call Itself a University Today”
11-11:25 am Charles Briggs, History, “Some Historical Perspectives on Responding to Crisis”
11:30-11:55 am Sarah Osten, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, “Not Just ‘Narcos’: Why We Need Latin American Studies”
12 noon-12:25 pm “Budget Cuts and Budget Crisis at UVM: Myths v. Facts”: Animated cartoon by Glynnis Fawkes with Q&A moderated by David Feurzeig, Music, and Clara Martorano, Physics-Math double major and Theatre minor
12:30-1pm Lunch break
1-1:25 pm Mark Usher, Classics, “Classics and Crisis: An Ancient Response to a Disastrous State of Affairs.” Recommended background reading: http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2020/05/classics-and-crisis/
1:30-2:20 pm Jamie Williamson, English, “Why American Indian Literature”
2:30-2:55 pm Liberal Arts for All: Student and Alumni Panel moderated by Meaghan Emery, Romance Languages and Cultures, with Kris Brown, ’22 (Forestry, Spanish, History); Eden Harari, ’21 (Secondary Education, English); Maggie Hirschberg, ’21 (Environmental Studies, German); Emily Nivens, ’21 (Business, French, Art History); Jacob September, ’18 (Electrical engineering, Math, Computer Science, Theatre); and Lindsey Stinson, ’21 (Chemistry, German)
3-3:25 pm Keith Klepeis and Laura Webb, Geology, “How UVM Geology students are helping to solve Vermont’s Environmental Problems”
3:30-3:55 pm UVM’s Role in Bolstering High School Latin Programs in Vermont with representatives of the Vermont Classical Languages Association and John C. Franklin, Classics, “Studiis et rebus honestis—Truth in Advertising”
4-4:25 pm Deborah Cafiero and Maria (Sasha) Woolson, “The Power of Learning Languages: Expanding Community and Creating Empathy”
4:30-4:55 pm “How UVM Admin Manufactured a Budget Crisis and What We Can Do About It” with Ellie Hagopian, UVM United Against the Cuts; Cobalt Tolbert, the UVM Union of Students; and Olivia Belrose, Bellows Free Academy senior and reporter for The Mercury
Source: UVM United Against the Cuts 2.2.2021