How to Help Your Department Avoid the Ax

During midterm exams at Villanova University, more than a dozen philosophy students gathered in the department’s offices until late one Tuesday evening. Some popped in for a while and grabbed Indian chicken, rice, and bread. Others stayed until nearly midnight, studying and swapping ideas for papers. Many wore the blue and green T-shirts that advertise to the rest of the campus that they are among a growing number of philosophy majors at Villanova.

The midterm study breaks are aimed at building a sense of camaraderie and making majoring in a difficult subject seem more fun. They are just one thing on Sally J. Scholz’s long list of ways to bolster the philosophy major at Villanova and protect the department’s future.

Avoiding the Ax

What philosophy departments can teach their peers in the humanities about surviving cuts and staying relevant.

• Spreading the Word About Philosophy’s Value
• 3 Ways to Support Philosophy on Your Campus

According to the American Philosophical Association, at least nine philosophy departments have been threatened with restructuring or elimination since 2010. Four have earned a reprieve, three have been cut or restructured, and two more remain on the chopping block with decisions yet to be made.

There is no proposal to cut the program at Villanova. “The university is committed to philosophy,” says Ms. Scholz, chair of the department there, “but it is important that we take steps to cement the department within the university’s future.”

Ms. Scholz leads a committee of the philosophical association that is developing a “tool kit” this spring to promote the discipline. “Our hope is not that this is a tool kit for threatened departments, but rather a tool kit to use proactively to help make sure administrators see how important philosophy is,” says Amy E. Ferrer, executive director of the association. “It’s important that departments have metrics of success long before a department is ever threatened.”

At its Eastern Division meeting in January, the association held a session defining those metrics and sharing ways philosophers might insulate their departments from budget cuts. It held a similar session at the association’s Central Division meeting this month. Professors and administrators on the two panels advised colleagues to bring a sense of excitement and vibrancy to the major, attracting more students by showing them the kinds of internships and careers a philosophy major can pursue. After all, one of the biggest questions students — and their parents — ask is: What can you do with a major in philosophy? Facebook videos, posters, and T-shirts advertising the major don’t hurt in attracting students, the presenters said.

Philosophers also should try to get seats on university committees that determine their institution’s future. And be ready with statistics when administrators want to know how many students the philosophy department serves and how majors do on the job market. “In many cases when departments were eliminated, philosophers should have tried to get involved in the process a lot earlier,” says Bryan W. Hall, a philosopher and associate dean of undergraduate studies at St. John’s University who spoke at the January meeting. “The best way of not being adversely affected by university policy is being the one who’s writing it.”

The lessons for philosophy are likely to apply to many other humanities programs, including English and history. Like philosophy, they are often on the chopping block when universities face budget shortfalls mainly because the number of students declaring majors in those disciplines has declined or remained flat over the last decade. Students are increasingly reluctant to consider majors that have no clear path to a career.

Gordon Pettit, who was chairman of the philosophy department at Western Illinois University before it was eliminated last summer, remembers talking to a high-school senior during a college fair a couple of years ago. When he suggested a philosophy major, he says, her mother laughed. “I was taken aback,” says Mr. Pettit.

The number of philosophy majors at Western was tiny — just 17 students in the fall of 2015 — and total enrollment in philosophy courses had dropped by 40 percent over the previous four years. While Mr. Pettit tried to persuade administrators that a key factor was a preceding reduction in the philosophy faculty, by the time he made that argument it was too late. “The thought of the university eliminating philosophy was unthinkable,” he says, “so I didn’t pay attention to how the process worked or what they’d look at.”

Adele Lindenmeyr, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova, says philosophy and other liberal-arts programs have become endangered over the last several years. “STEM, STEM, STEM,” she says. “Everything is STEM. If it’s not STEM, it’s not seen as useful or profitable.”

Ms. Scholz is trying to change that. “Philosophy for too long has rested on the fact that we are a core discipline, a foundational discipline of the university,” she says. “We’ve ignored some things other majors have had to do from the beginning about speaking to today’s market.” Ms. Scholz has an alphabetical list of ways to help secure the department. Under A is admissions: Making sure the dean of admissions at Villanova knows what to say to students who might be interested in philosophy.

“I give the admissions person talking points — about what we do, what our recent grads have gone on to do,” says Ms. Scholz. She also makes sure that college tours at Villanova highlight not just research by scientists, but by philosophers. “I’ve reached out to those who conduct the tours and said: Here is how you describe our interesting research in a one-sentence sound bite.”

For advisers who help students choose courses, Ms. Scholz has go-to postcards with general areas of interest in which a philosophy course — or even a major — might apply. A hit with business students at Villanova is a course called “Philosophy of Exchange.” And pre-med students like “The Good Doctor,” a course that explores the habits of reasoning that lead to good diagnoses and the virtues of what it takes to become a good doctor.

The number of philosophy majors at Villanova still isn’t very large. But since Ms. Scholz took over the department in 2015, the number of majors has nearly doubled to 34, from 18. When students declare philosophy their major, she gives them each one of the blue or green shirts that say: Philosophy.

Last year Kathryn Szumanski, director of professional development at Villanova, ran a lunchtime workshop for about a dozen philosophy majors. “I was teaching these students that their thinking, problem-solving, oral and written communication skills, and ability to work independently and as team were all highly coveted in corporate America,” says Ms. Szumanski. “The light bulbs went off when students saw they could apply their philosophy skills in areas like hospital administration or architecture.”

By teaming up with popular programs like business, cognitive science, pre-med, and engineering, the philosophy department has created bonds with other disciplines, Ms. Scholz says, which has built more advocates for the department and its future.

That also is part of the story behind the department’s rise in majors — some of those students are double majors, tacking philosophy onto their original choice.

Emily R. Tenuta added a philosophy major to her political-science major at the end of her sophomore year. She says the department is flexible and even created a course in philosophy of human rights this semester when Ms. Tenuta told Ms. Scholz that it was an interest of hers. The philosophy department has become a comfortable and familiar place for Ms. Tenuta, who graduates this spring. “The study breaks have been the best thing in the world for me,” says Ms. Tenuta.

While philosophy at Villanova doesn’t seem threatened, sometimes it takes a near-death experience to shock a department into action. The philosophy department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas was faced with elimination in the wake of the Nevada real-estate crisis of 2011, which led to cuts in state spending including to higher education. Philosophy was on the line because the number of majors was small and the department was relatively isolated from other disciplines. “We are often regarded as navel gazers,” says David Beisecker, chairman of the department.

While the worst of the cuts were avoided and the philosophy department at UNLV remains, Mr. Beisecker decided to do everything he could to insulate his department from future threats. The department has doubled the number of majors from around 60 in 2011 to about 125 today. It’s created a law-and-justice concentration that has attracted students who want to attend law school. (According to the philosophical association, philosophy majors consistently score higher than any other undergraduates on the law-school admissions test.) And it has partnered with the college of engineering to provide engineering ethics education and with computer science to teach a logic sequence for majors. Philosophy also is hoping to “piggyback” on the creation of a new UNLV School of Medicine, says Mr. Beisecker, offering a biomedical ethics track.

“We are at a place where enrollments are surging,” says Mr. Beisecker, who spoke on the panel at the philosophical-association meeting this month. “If another round of program reviews would come about, we would be in a much stronger position.”

Brian Leiter, director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values at the University of Chicago, has chronicled the financial threats to philosophy programs on his popular blog, Leiter Reports. He agrees that approaches like Mr. Beisecker’s can help ward off attacks on the discipline.

“If philosophy offers service courses to other majors that the university isn’t going to touch,” he says, “that’s important.”

But other observers caution that some survival strategies, like encouraging more students to major in philosophy, can have drawbacks. “We always worked on the premise that people should find the major that’s right for them,” says Charlene Elsby, who was an assistant professor of philosophy at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne when the department was cut earlier this year. “You may not be able to recruit as many majors as you need to survive. You have to think of students’ general welfare, rather than overemphasize what they can expect careerwise.”

At the University of Wyoming, just two students in the last several years enrolled as philosophy majors. The number of majors over all is only around 35. The philosophy department escaped being cut, but it will be merged with religious studies this summer.

Franz-Peter Griesmaier, chairman of the philosophy department, is making changes to try to ensure the discipline’s future. He has gotten more involved in recruiting more students to the major, including with a promotional video on Facebook and YouTube. When he meets with administrators, Mr. Griesmaier points out how philosophy is more important to the university than merely the number of majors. Philosophy courses attract high-performing students, he says, who go on to graduate and professional schools. “Smart kids love philosophy,” says Mr. Griesmaier. “We want to make sure the administration understands that diminishing the offerings in philosophy would mean that the really good students might leave the university, and even the state.”

Like philosophers at other institutions, Mr. Griesmaier is forging bonds with other disciplines — persuading his colleagues in those areas to create interdisciplinary classes that are required for their student majors. “We don’t want to be an esoteric discipline sitting over here looking at old texts,” he says.

The department is also looking outside the university for ways to bolster the discipline. It offers Stoic Camp for students and nonstudents alike, who spend five days in May holed up in mountain cabins mediating and living like Stoic philosophers. “This helps us recruit,” says Mr. Griesmaier. “It helps us get our name out.” And it can help the department make money from outsiders; two years ago, two hedge-fund managers signed up.

Mr. Griesmaier doesn’t doubt that philosophy at Wyoming may face budget cuts again down the road. But this time, he says: “We are trying to position ourselves in a way that they won’t touch us.”

Robin Wilson writes about campus culture, including sexual assault and sexual harassment. Contact her at robin.wilson@chronicle.com.