Tragic is an Understatement

In my last post, I mentioned the tragic cuts proposed by FSU’s budget crisis committee. In addition to the abandonment of a piece of Americana in the Ringling Museum and plans for a new Performing Arts Center, that particular link mentions “program closures.”  Well, leave it to the Booster club to keep things diplomatic.  It turns out that German and Anthropology are on the chopping block.  Tell me, President Wetherell, apart from the notion of classical Greek education, where did we inherit our academic tradition from?  Oh yeah, the GERMAN system!  Also, can you please explain to me how a top-tier research institution justifies cutting its program for the study of human life?

Maybe I should be happy.  I mean, without anthropologists around, maybe the ethnomusicologists will have less competition for the International Dissertation Research Fellowships, and more lucky winners will come out of my program.  But wait: that won’t fix the gaping hole in their required curriculum for anthropology electives.  It won’t make up for the loss of wonderful colleagues that we have in the students and professors of that department.  It definitely won’t make up for the loss of amazing opportunities for meaningful cross-campus discourse that we have enjoyed with Anthropology for the entire life of the Ethnomusicology program (over thirty years).  Tell me, what good does it do for the Office of National Fellowships to help students with their DAAD applications for wonderful undergraduate and graduate programs in Germany if they won’t be able to speak the language when they get there?  What good is a Global Pathways Initiative if you no longer care about understanding the people we encounter around the world?  Where do you leave that fledgling Initiative when you abandon the students and professors doing ethnographic research in over sixty-five countries around the world?

Luckily, these cuts have not been finalized and cannot be finalized by the Budget Crisis Committee, who are clearly in such a state of panic that their concern for the bottom line has impaired their ability to think straight.  It’s up to the legislature to either give the university what it needs or really foul things up.   With a track record of deep lasorations into the education budget, we might not have much reason to believe that the state legislature will put the university back on track.  However, that’s no reason not to let them know that they need to try.  Please find the contact information for individuals below who still have power to stop these senseless cuts.  Write to them.  Tell them to invest in education in Florida.

Senate:
Jeff Atwater 1-561-625-5101
Senator Jeff Atwater
Room 312, SOB
404 S. Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1100
Atwater.jeff.web@flsenate.gov

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