Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    University Transformation
Sign In
Blog Logo

Letters

Correspondence from Chronicle readers.

The Chronicle welcomes correspondence from readers about our articles and about topics we have covered. Please make your points as concisely as possible. We will not publish letters longer than 350 words, and all letters will be edited to conform to our style.

Send letters to letters@chronicle.com. Please include a daytime phone number and tell us what institution you are affiliated with or what city or town you are writing from.

Two Letters From Edinboro University Faculty Members

March 21, 2018

To the Editor:

Your recent article, “A Tough-Talking President Tried to Fix a College. Then He Came Undone

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

To the Editor:

Your recent article, “A Tough-Talking President Tried to Fix a College. Then He Came Undone” (The Chronicle, March 18), is painful reading for members of the Edinboro University community. I appreciate the opportunity to share a more positive picture of the university.

Like some of the other schools in the Pennsylvania System of Higher Education, Edinboro has struggled financially in recent years for demographic, legislative, administrative, and other reasons. But it continues to have much to offer students. There are distinguished faculty in all our schools, the flagship art department has a national reputation, the honors program is thriving, and the online master’s degree in nursing is highly ranked nationwide. We are also one of the most disability-friendly universities in the country; students with disabilities come here from all over the state, and some even from out of state, partly for that reason. There are abundant recreational and extracurricular educational activities; my own department in particular mentors majors for conference participation, publication, and internship.

ADVERTISEMENT

Overall, Edinboro University provides valuable educational opportunities to students from diverse backgrounds, especially working-class ones, while offering the lowest tuition of all the four-year colleges and universities in Pennsylvania.

I am proud to serve on the devoted, hardworking Edinboro University faculty, and I believe the university will overcome its current difficulties and emerge stronger than ever.

Stephen J. Sullivan
Assistant Professor of English and Philosophy
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Edinboro, Pa.

***

To the Editor:

Your article’s focus on President Fred Walker and his strategy to turn our university around fiscally, by re-tooling our offerings to respond to current market forces, fails to capture a more complex and subtle picture. I understand the relevance of the article’s lens, as it gives unusually frank insight into a president’s calculations, and Walker’s rhetoric and cuts corroborate a burgeoning narrative of the death of the humanities. While this reflects a current reality in public higher education, perhaps another compelling story about Edinboro could have been the miracle that many of our humanities programs have been preserved despite the perceived lack of job-market readiness of trendier majors.

ADVERTISEMENT

Edinboro’s art department, in which I teach, has one of the strongest and most comprehensive art programs in the state, and draws students beyond our region. At a university filled with working-class, first-generation college students, the administration was bold to preserve small programs within the department such as Wood Furniture and Metalsmithing/Jewelry, along with 12 areas of study, without a single program being cut. We nurtured the MacArthur “Genius” Award-winner LaToya Ruby Frazier, who came from the poverty of Braddock, Pa. Our students are leaders in the art world in the fine and commercial arts, many becoming entrepreneurs who start their own businesses, feeding the economy and cultural life of our tri-city area and beyond.

If I look beyond my department, I see students from modest means that still have the only affordable opportunity in the region to study subjects in the humanities such as anthropology, English literature, and history. Parallel to the death-of-the-humanities narrative, perhaps these stories can lend insight into how and why some public institutions and their leaders decide to preserve at least some of these opportunities for all, despite tremendous pressures to do otherwise.

Suzanne Proulx
Assistant Professor of Art
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Correction (3/22/2018, 9:25 a.m.): An earlier version of this letter misidentified where LaToya Ruby Frazier grew up. The text has been updated.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Mangan-Censorship-0610.jpg
Academic Freedom
‘A Banner Year for Censorship’: More States Are Restricting Classroom Discussions on Race and Gender
On the day of his retirement party, Bob Morse poses for a portrait in the Washington, D.C., offices of U.S. News and World Report in June 2025. Morse led the magazine's influential and controversial college rankings efforts since its inception in 1988. Michael Theis, The Chronicle.
List Legacy
‘U.S. News’ Rankings Guru, Soon to Retire, Reflects on the Role He’s Played in Higher Ed
Black and white photo of the Morrill Hall building on the University of Minnesota campus with red covering one side.
Finance & operations
U. of Minnesota Tries to Soften the Blow of Tuition Hikes, Budget Cuts With Faculty Benefits
Photo illustration showing a figurine of a football player with a large price tag on it.
Athletics
Loans, Fees, and TV Money: Where Colleges Are Finding the Funds to Pay Athletes

From The Review

A stack of coins falling over. Motion blur. Falling economy concept. Isolated on white.
The Review | Opinion
Will We Get a More Moderate Endowment Tax?
By Phillip Levine
Photo illustration of a classical column built of paper, with colored wires overtaking it like vines of ivy
The Review | Essay
The Latest Awful EdTech Buzzword: “Learnings”
By Kit Nicholls
William F. Buckley, Jr.
The Review | Interview
William F. Buckley Jr. and the Origins of the Battle Against ‘Woke’
By Evan Goldstein

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: A Global Leadership Perspective
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin