7.0216 Closing of Penn's Religious Studies Dept (4/456)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 4 Oct 1993 14:45:18 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 7, No. 0216. Monday, 4 Oct 1993.


(1) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 00:59:54 -0400 (EDT) (131 lines)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: Closing of Penn ReligSt Dept

(2) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 01:03:31 -0400 (EDT) (101 lines)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: update on Penn ReligSt crisis

(3) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 11:28:47 -0400 (EDT) (50 lines)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: Re: Closing of Penn ReligSt Dept: clarification

(4) Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 15:06:46 -0400 (EDT) (174 lines)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: Penn ReligSt Dept Crisis Responses

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 00:59:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: Closing of Penn ReligSt Dept

With the usual apologies for posting to several lists, and the
invitation to cross-post as seems appropriate --

>
> In a news release dated 22 September 1993 (which was headlined in the
> Daily Pennsylvanian campus paper on Monday the 27th of Sept), the
> following unanticipated announcement was circulated:
>
> The University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences will
> disband three of its 28 departments, merge one other into an existing
> department, and place another department in receivership, Dean Rosemary
> Stevens announced today.
>
> The restructuring follows a 1 1/2 year-long review to develop a new
> master plan to guide SAS's growth over the next seven years. The Dean
> cited the need to establish intellectual priorities and invest scarce
> resources accordingly.
>
> In the reengineering, American Civilization, Religious Studies and
> Regional Science will be disbanded June 30, 1994. Astronomy will merge
> with Physics, and Slavic Languages and Literature will be put under a
> management committee and chair external to the department.
>
> Students will still be able to take courses from faculty in these
> disciplines. Current undergraduate majors will, where necessary, be
> reconceived as strong interdisciplinary programs. The 22 faculty members
> affected, including two non-tenured, will continue to teach within the
> school. The duties of the administrative staff in the departments may
> change, but none will lose their jobs.
>
> Stevens described the change as an effort to redesign Arts and Sciences,
> enhance its interdisciplinary nature, and use its resources wisely.
>
> "These choices are difficult, but necessary," said Stevens. "The five
> departments include some wonderful faculty. But organizational structure
> and individual quality are quite distinct concepts. You do not need to
> set up a department in order to create a world-class teaching program in
> a field. We make these decisions consciously, in order to concentrate
> our limited resources on those departments that have achieved the
> highest degree of excellence or show the promise of such excellence in
> the future." Arts and Sciences, with some 6000 students and 475 standing
> faculty, is the largest of Penn's 12 schools.
>
> The departments affected -- especially American Civilization, Religious
> Studies and Regional Science -- are interdisciplinary in character,
> Stevens noted.
>
> "This action is not a sign of retreat from our school's commitment to
> interdisciplinary study," she said. "On the contrary, the vitality of
> interdisciplinary study depends on change and renewal."
>
> Announcement of Stevens' decision comes after the school's Planning and
> Priorities Committee and the Dean's staff spent the last academic year
> evaluating each department and developing the school's new master plan.
>
> "These recommendations, and ultimately decisions have been made during a
> period of financial exigency," said Stevens. "Yet our determination to
> make the School of Arts and Sciences more responsive to the strengths of
> our outstanding faculty has much more to do with enhancing our
> undergraduate mission than easing our budget problems."
>
> ...
>
> "Penn has a stellar School of Arts and Sciences," Stevens said. "I see
> these structural changes as necessary adjustments to changes in learning
> and to faculty interests. Within a steady-state budget, our goal is
> growth where it matters most -- that is, in our teaching and research.
> Quite simply the outcome of these changes will be better programs. I
> want particularly to see us design new undergraduate programs in
> American Civilization and Religious Studies that make Penn the
> acknowledged leader in these fields, as we are in many other areas."
>
> ...
>
> Recommendations on Departments:
>
> 1) That the Department of American Civilization be closed ....
>
> 2) That the Department of Astronomy be merged into Physics ....
>
> 3) That the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature ....
>
> 4) That the Department of Regional Science be closed ....
>
> 5) That the Department of Religious Studies be closed, with immediate
> steps taken to create and improve undergraduate and graduate programs in
> religious studies, on an interdepartmental basis.
>
> //end of release//
>
> Comment by Robert Kraft:
>
> These actions were taken without warning or consultation, for the most
> part. This is in itself distressing, but even more so since with regard
> to Religious Studies, at least, the reasons given and the solutions
> proposed (continuation as interdisciplinary programs, revising or
> replacing the interdisciplinary departmental programs already in place)
> seem inconsistent with the announced decision. We find it difficult to
> conceive how there can be an appropriate core (e.g. methodological focus,
> comparative analysis of approaches to the study of religion) to the
> academic study of religion and religions without something like a stable
> "departmental" basis -- Penn has great resources for sampling various
> aspects of the study of religion in various interdepartmental contexts,
> but we question whether this really adds up to a coherent program in
> religious studies, much less a program that can lead the field!
>
> While the Dean's office is holding a firm line on these decisions, the
> proposals must go before the Provost, President and Trustees at some
> point. Thus there is still some opportunity for discussion and debate.
> The office of the Dean is addressable at 116 College Hall, University of
> Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6377. The Office of the Trustees,
> chaired by Alvin Shoemaker, is in 121 College Hall, U of P,
> Philadelphia 19104-6382. Currently, the University has an interim
> President, Dr. Claire Fagin, and an interim Provost, Dr. Marvin
> Lazerson, with offices in 100 College Hall (19104-6380) and 102 College
> Hall (19104-6303) respectively. Support for our attempts to challenge
> this decision by the Dean's office will be most welcome.
>
> Robert Kraft, Berg Professor in Religious Studies (Early Judaism and
> Christianity), for the Department:
> E. Ann Matter, chair (Medieval Period, Womens Studies),
> Stephen Dunning, graduate group chair (Philosophy of Religion),
> Guy R. Welbon (South Asian Religions, Approaches to the Study of Relig)
> Joseph R. Washington (Social Ethics, Afro-American Religion)
> Ed Breuer (Modern Judaism)
>

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------129---
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 01:03:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: update on Penn ReligSt crisis

A more detailed presentation of the Dean's recommendation to close the
department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania has
now appeared in the University's official publication <t>Almanac</> for
Tuesday, 28 September, 1993. The timetable for action on this and the
related recommendations [see the "news release" posted earlier] has also
been clarified: the recommendations will be the subject of a faculty
meeting of the School of Arts and Sciences on 12 October 1993, although
it does not appear that the faculty is empowered to overturn or modify
the recommendations if they wish to do so; then on 14 October, there is
a scheduled meeting of the Trustees at which the recommendations are to
be presented for approval. Whatever is to be done in an attempt to
overturn or modify the action must be done quickly!

Here is the text of the section on Religious Studies in the Dean's
published letter to the SAS Faculty (in <t>Almanac</>):

As is the case in American Studies [also recommended for closing], the
array of talent across the School in the field of religious studies --
including Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, History, Classics,
Anthropology [to which could be added Folklore, Sociology, Art History,
Philosophy, and English, among others] -- is impressive. The recent
merger of the Annenberg Research Institute into Penn -- now the School's
Center for Judaic Studies: Classical and Modern -- further symbolizes
our commitment to religious studies as a field. But, as in the case of
American Civilization, fields are not always best or necessarily served
through the structure of a specialized department. The programs of the
Religious Studies Department at both the graduate and undergraduate
levels are inadequate reflections of the strength of interest in
religious studies across the School; for example, the Department has had
few undergraduate majors in recent years (2 graduates in May 1993), and
the department's graduate program has consistently fallen short of
attracting the financial resources that it needs to flourish.

In the present economic climate we cannot make the significant
investment that it would take to bring this department into a
competitive position vis-a-vis other first-rate Departments of Religion
or Religious Studies across the world. Nor can we justify shifting
resources from other departments.

I am recommending that the Department be closed as of June 30, 1994 with
transfer of the six standing faculty (five tenured) to other
departments, and to reconceive religious studies as an
inter-departmental teaching program which will attract the best and the
brightest students in the future. The shape and scope of this program at
both the undergraduate and graduate levels will depend on the degree of
faculty interest and involvement.

-----

Brief responses from the interdisciplinary religious studies graduate
group, which already exists and is the degree granting program for
graduate studies in the field, and from the department, will appear in
next week's <t>Almanac</>. They will include such points as:

(1) The Dean's office does not seem to understand the nature of the
current departmental and graduate group structures, which do exactly
what is recommended as the future for religious studies at Penn;

(2) The Dean's office does not seem to understand the nature of the
field of the academic study of religion, which requires some attention
to core concerns (comparative, methodological, synthetic) that cannot be
expected to survive in or emerge from the various departments that
currently supply other specific courses and resources for the study of
religion(s), and into which the current faculty will be incorporated;

(3) The perception of the quality of the current religious studies
programs as reflected in the Dean's presentation is inaccurate for those
select sub-fields that the current program has chosen to support (e.g.
Ancient Near East, Early Judaism/Christianity, Medieval Popular
Religion, Religions of India, Modern Western Religious Thought,
Hermeneutics) -- fields in which our graduates compete successfully on
the job market, for example.

(4) The failure to follow normal procedures of consultation and
collegiality in developing and presenting these recommendations is
deplorable, and seems to preclude the otherwise desirable possibility of
a smooth transition from the existing situation to something deemed more
appropriate for Penn's future; instead, destructive disruption -- even
as attempts are made to cooperate -- seems inevitable.

Whether this sort of response -- a combination of compliance (we already
are doing these things and are anxious to improve) and opposition (so
why destroy the mechanisms?) will have any effect remains to be seen.
But time is short, and any responses that we can gather from the academy
at large will be appreciated. Materials can be addressed to

Dean Rosemary Stevens, Arts and Sciences
116 College Hall
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6377
(Internet: rstevens@pilot.sas.upenn.edu);

or to
Alvin Shoemaker, Chair of the Trustees
121 College Hall [as above] 19104-6382

Bob Kraft, UPenn (Religious Studies ?)
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------80----
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 11:28:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: Re: Closing of Penn ReligSt Dept: clarification

Let me hasten to clarify some issues raised by Paul Swarney's welcome,
if disconsolate, note (on IOUDAIOS) that is appended below. The dean is
not proposing to close the graduate program in religious studies at
Penn, although exactly how it would function in a departmentless
situation is not yet clear. Thus the issue of graduate education here is
not as problematic as the announcements might suggest, on the surface.

But just how it will be possible to maintain core courses in religious
studies for both undergraduates and graduates without a department is a
serious issue, and our considered contention is that in the long run, if
there is no stable mechanism to insure such core commitment (whether it
is called a "department" or not), the study of religion as a phenomenon
(as opposed to the study of religious dimensions of specific subjects)
will not survive with integrity. That is the main battle we are
currently fighting, and for which intelligent support is greatly
appreciated. I hope to post the formal responses of the department and
of the graduate group later today, which should help to pinpoint the
issues. Unfortunately, it is not a bad joke.

Bob Kraft, UPenn

>
> I did not read yesterday's mail until after ten last night, having been
> delayed in part by some long but very useful discussions with a few of
> our senior students in Classical Studies about graduate studies. One
> excellent student in particular (having been thoroughly corrupted in
> one of Steve Mason's courses last year) finds herself possibly moving
> in the direction of religion in the first century. Among the places
> we decided she should apply was of course Penn. I was quite upset at
> the disaster reported by Robert Kraft both because it is a blow to
> students and scholars of religion and other fields and because I had
> wasted a good deal of my own and my student's time promoting a programme
> that had already been destroyed. Had I not been so enthusiatic, I would
> have seen the news well before ten.
>
> I hope that at some moment this morning we shall be notified that it is all
> a bad joke. If not,the opinions from York about this matter will be directed
> to the relevant addresses at Penn. And given the enormity of this affair we
> might also engage in a discussion about the validity of calling on more than
> mortal aid.
>
> Paul Swarney, Director
> Classical Studies
> York University
>

(4) --------------------------------------------------------------200---
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 15:06:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft)
Subject: Penn ReligSt Dept Crisis Responses

Again, with apologies for multiple postings and for a subject that will
not interest everyone, here are the formal responses from the department
and the graduate group to the Dean's recommendation to close the
Religious Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania. If you
missed the first two postings -- the news announcement and the detailed
explanation from the Dean -- please contact me
(kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu) and I will forward them to you. The earlier
postings also include suggestions about where to register any reactions
-- I will include the pertinent addresses below as well.

Bob Kraft, UPenn
=====

September 30, 1993

RESPONSE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES


On behalf of my colleagues, I wish to respond to the proposal of
the SAS administration to close the Department of Religious Studies. I
think it is necessary to begin by carefully distinguishing between the
undergraduate study of religion at Penn and the existing
interdepartmental Religious Studies Graduate Group [RSGG].

The RSGG is already made up of virtually all faculty in the
School who have shown interest in the study of religion as an academic
discipline. The contribution of the Department to the graduate program
includes coordination and administration, which could be handled in
other ways, and the locus for important core courses dealing with
religion as a phenomenon, which would be very difficult to replace
otherwise. Commonly, half of the course work taken by our graduate
students originates in other departments.

RSGG members with appointments outside the Department play
active roles in the training of every graduate student in the program
through courses, final examinations, and throughout the dissertation
process. In some cases the extra-departmental members of the RSGG serve
as chairs of dissertation committees. We are perplexed, therefore, at
the suggestion that the graduate program does not adequately reflect
"the strength of interest in religious studies across the School."

That the graduate program does not attempt to encompass all
possible specializations within the broad field of Religious Studies
represents a consistent policy of the RSGG. We admit graduate students
to our program only in fields in which we do compete successfully on an
international basis, an assessment readily confirmed by both the quality
of our applicants and by the success of the program in placing our
Ph.D.'s in academic positions. Given this, we are mystified by the
assertion that we are not in "a competitive position vis-a-vis other
first-rate Departments of Religion or Religious Studies across the
world."

Ironically, in this world of shrinking academic resources,
Religious Studies is an expanding field. Even Cornell University,
explicitly forbidden by its charter from religious instruction, is
initiating steps to establish a formal program in comparative religion.
This is a field which does offer careers for young scholars and
teachers, and in which our graduates have competed successfully against
candidates from programs with far better support.

With regard to the undergraduate program in Religious Studies,
it is true that we consistently have a small number of majors, seldom
more than ten. We think this is consistent with the atmosphere of
undergraduate education at Penn. The Department offers both a coherent
undergraduate major - invariably involving interdisciplinary study to
the same degree as the graduate program - as well as a number of service
courses at the introductory level. Despite our small size, we
contribute regularly to interdisciplinary programs such as Comparative
Literature, Jewish Studies, and Women's Studies. Our faculty has also
participated generously in School-wide undergraduate seminar programs
(Freshman Seminars, General Honors Seminars, "Writing About" Seminars).
While we welcome the support (and resources) of the administration in
helping us rethink the undergraduate program and course structures for
the purpose of their improvement, we are at a loss to know how the
closing of the Department would further the goal to "reconceive
religious studies as an interdepartmental teaching program."

What disturbs us most of all is that the dissolution of the
Department will make impossible the study of religion as a phenomenon.
The study of religion is not circumscribed by isolated movements (e.g.
Hinduism, Judaism), or specific approaches (e.g. sociology of religion,
history of Christianity), or creative expressions (religious art,
literature, music). It is a coherent field of its own.

We believe the deans of SAS are people of good will who have
been basically misinformed and misguided about our department. It is
easy to see how they were, since in our case, "no consultation" means
no effort at all on their part to see what sort of program we have. The
department has not been evaluated for over a decade, in spite of our
repeated requests for an internal or an external review. Nor did the
deans discuss our five-year plan with us before making this decision.
Religious Studies is not a field that receives national rankings; but it
would have been possible to make inquiries to other departments at Ivy
League Schools and other competitive institutions, or indeed, to consult
with us. To our knowledge, no such attempt was made before passing
judgment.

It is the conviction of the Department of Religious Studies that
the closing of the Department will culminate in the abolition of the
study of religion as a coherent discipline at the University, a tragic
move at a time when events all over the world fully demonstrate the need
for critical academic understanding of religion as a distinct, discrete
cultural phenomenon.


E. Ann Matter, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies


=====

September 30, 1993



RESPONSE OF THE GRADUATE GROUP IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES


The interdisciplinary Religious Studies Graduate Group [RSGG],
composed of a wide array of talented faculty from across the entire
School, met on Wednesday, September 29 to discuss the recommendation to
close the Department of Religious Studies. The RSGG has authorized me
as Graduate Chair to communicate the following four points:

1. The RSGG deplores the decision to close the Department of
Religious Studies.

2. The RSGG, as a separate entity from the Department, most of
whose members hold primary appointments in other departments,
particularly deplores failure to consult with either the Department or
the Graduate Group.

3. After extensive discussion, members of the RSGG are unable
to see any merit whatsoever in the arbitrary decision to freeze graduate
admissions for the coming year. We are concerned that this precipitous
move would cause irreversible damage to graduate study of religion at
Penn, which takes place across departmental lines. We recommend
reconsideration of that decision in consultation with the RSGG.

4. The RSGG reaffirms its commitment to excellence in this
area, and stands ready to work together with the SAS administration to
enhance the graduate study of religion at Penn.



Stephen N. Dunning, Chair of the Religious Studies Graduate Group


=====

> There is still some opportunity for discussion and debate.
> The office of the Dean is addressable at 116 College Hall, University of
> Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6377. The Office of the Trustees,
> chaired by Alvin Shoemaker, is in 121 College Hall, U of P,
> Philadelphia 19104-6382. Currently, the University has an interim
> President, Dr. Claire Fagin, and an interim Provost, Dr. Marvin
> Lazerson, with offices in 100 College Hall (19104-6380) and 102 College
> Hall (19104-6303) respectively. Support for our attempts to challenge
> this decision by the Dean's office will be most welcome.
>
> Robert Kraft, Berg Professor in Religious Studies (Early Judaism and
> Christianity), for the Department:
> E. Ann Matter, chair (Medieval Period, Womens Studies),
> Stephen Dunning, graduate group chair (Philosophy of Religion),
> Guy R. Welbon (South Asian Religions, Approaches to the Study of Relig)
> Joseph R. Washington (Social Ethics, Afro-American Religion)
> Ed Breuer (Modern Judaism)
>
/end/