Colleges in Dire Financial Straits

[spork]

Pacific Lutheran University has declared financial exigency: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html

This is after already cutting faculty in 2016 with 31 faculty positions lost.  A minimum of 40 faculty positions are expected to be lost in this iteration.

I am confident the major and minor in Criminal Justice they started this year will bail them out.

Sure.

Negative net revenue for FYs 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018. Form 990 for FY 2019 not available yet.

[polly_mer]

Pacific Lutheran University has declared financial exigency: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article247922835.html

This is after already cutting faculty in 2016 with 31 faculty positions lost.  A minimum of 40 faculty positions are expected to be lost in this iteration.

I am confident the major and minor in Criminal Justice they started this year will bail them out.

Sure.

Negative net revenue for FYs 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018. Form 990 for FY 2019 not available yet.

Criminal justice is a very popular major nationally.  However, starting a new program now in some regions means being a day late and a dollar short, especially as a relatively expensive institution.

One stupid choice that Super Dinky made under a new president was to double down on the damn liberal arts idea instead of betting on the already booming criminal justice program with two related hot specialties that were relatively unique in the region, cost effective to offer if we already had CJ, and seldom offered at small colleges.  But nooooooooooooooooooo, a good CJ program isn't liberal arts and therefore instead of going with a strength that could have grown quite nicely, SD actively undermined popular majors in which we could get faculty in favor of trying to sell something everyone had usually at cheaper prices with better selection of courses.

[polly_mer]

Speaking of criminal justice, Lincoln University in Missouri is opening a police academy, the first HBCU to do so.

https://themissouritimes.com/lincoln-university-becomes-first-hbcu-in-country-to-host-police-academy/

[jimbogumbo]

I think in far too many places Criminal Justice is the undergrad equivalent of an MBA: a fake path to prosperity both for the institution and the students who are being ripped off. Poorly done and more costly than portrayed. Students end up with a degree that really leads to nothing in the way of real job prospects, and a mountain of debt.

And don't get me started on all the high school students who STILL think they can take that path to a non-existent CSI-NCIS-FBI-xxx solve everything with a computer in 20 minutes career.

Time to try out my new blood pressure cuff.

[Parasaurolophus]

Too bad so much of the criminal justice content is pseudo-scientific bullshit.

[marshwiggle]

Too bad so much of the criminal justice content is pseudo-scientific bullshit.

That's never been a problem for lots of "<whatever> Studies" programs.

[Parasaurolophus]

Too bad so much of the criminal justice content is pseudo-scientific bullshit.

That's never been a problem for lots of "<whatever> Studies" programs.

Even if that's true--and I don't think it is, since the kind of scholarship at stake is very different--the stakes are a lot lower. Forensic odontology, for instance, actually harms people, and believing in it causes you to harm people.

[polly_mer]

The CJ programs I'm used to are a lot of stories by current police officers/judges/similar for their one course as professional fellows, a good dollop of psychology, and a tiny bit of biology/anthropology/sociology.

If it doesn't matter the major in college, then this is at least a pleasant way to spend a few years...just like many of the humanities majors.

Those who have aspirations of being forensic anything and have done their research are majoring in anthropology or chemistry, not CJ.  The actual science is still useful, even if they become a different type of scientist.  The magic of some parts of forensics aren't science and therefore don't require a science background.

[polly_mer]

Too bad so much of the criminal justice content is pseudo-scientific bullshit.

That's never been a problem for lots of "<whatever> Studies" programs.

Even if that's true--and I don't think it is, since the kind of scholarship at stake is very different--the stakes are a lot lower. Forensic odontology, for instance, actually harms people, and believing in it causes you to harm people.

There's plenty of harm being done by the "<whatever> Studies" programs because those professors are consulted when the PR need arises and those professors provide wish lists instead of actual knowledge regarding humans based on quantitative research such as one might do if they knew sociology or anthropology.

Some of the bad decisions being made now regarding reforming policing are the result of bad "<whatever> Studies" thoughts instead of good CJ research and observations.

[Hegemony]

What kind of "Whatever Studies" are you all talking about?  In the places I'm familiar with, we have Religious Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies, Medieval Studies, Asian Studies, Italian Studies, and Russian/East European Studies. You may not think any humanities fields are worthwhile, but these are as rigorous as any other humanities program, and more interdisciplinary to boot. I think maybe it's time for academics to stop dissing any field that's not their own: "Those people are politically correct lightweights and their field of study is cartoonish!" We've got enough anti-intellectualism in the culture at large without the call coming from inside the house.

[Parasaurolophus]

Those who have aspirations of being forensic anything and have done their research are majoring in anthropology or chemistry, not CJ.  The actual science is still useful, even if they become a different type of scientist.  The magic of some parts of forensics aren't science and therefore don't require a science background.

At least here, a lot of the students in the program aspire to be cops. That's what concerns me.

And the consequences of their misunderstandings and faith in junk science are severe and direct, as opposed to whatever PR "damage" is done by someone who's calling for the wrong kinds of reforms (if that's even the case, which I suspect we disagree about in the first place).

[mamselle]

What kind of "Whatever Studies" are you all talking about?  In the places I'm familiar with, we have Religious Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies, Medieval Studies, Asian Studies, Italian Studies, and Russian/East European Studies. You may not think any humanities fields are worthwhile, but these are as rigorous as any other humanities program, and more interdisciplinary to boot. I think maybe it's time for academics to stop dissing any field that's not their own: "Those people are politically correct lightweights and their field of study is cartoonish!" We've got enough anti-intellectualism in the culture at large without the call coming from inside the house.

Overall, I agree, but I've seen problems in programs like "Dance Studies," rather than, say courses of study entitled "Dance ethnology," or "Dance history" which have the potential to be fairly rigorous.

The conversation I had with one student was dispiriting, in that, rather than learning chrological dance devopment in various places and climes, she was allowed to study "Themes in Dance," without learning any of the dance techniques applicable to the culture in question; nothing of the history, literature, or visual arts of the culture; and no sense of how religion, politics or historical invasions might have influenced or inflected the dance she wanted to study.

She was interested in India, as I recall...where those elements have had serious effects on the dances themselves, how they are taught now, and how they may have functioned ritually as well as programmatically in the past.

It was a pleasant kind of "dance lite," that had no grounding in anything but her imagination, and most definitely suffered from several kinds of cultural misappropriation, which she laughed off, when I pointed them out, saying, " but my advisor has already approved that chapter, so it must be ok."

Screaming would have done no good, so I remained silent...

M.

[PScientist]

At our place, we have both "criminology" and "criminal justice" majors.  The criminology major is run by a retired cop and follows the narrative that crime is caused primarily by individual deviance.  On the other hand, the criminal justice major is controlled by the sociology department and promotes the idea that crime is primarily a consequence of systemic social failure.  A few years ago, the administration made these groups get together and talk about merging, and it was clear that they did not speak a common language.

Most of the future cops choose criminology, and most of the future defense attorneys choose criminal justice.

[Parasaurolophus]

At our place, we have both "criminology" and "criminal justice" majors.  The criminology major is run by a retired cop and follows the narrative that crime is caused primarily by individual deviance.  On the other hand, the criminal justice major is controlled by the sociology department and promotes the idea that crime is primarily a consequence of systemic social failure.  A few years ago, the administration made these groups get together and talk about merging, and it was clear that they did not speak a common language.

Most of the future cops choose criminology, and most of the future defense attorneys choose criminal justice.

Wow.


I wonder how robust and widespread that distinction between subjects is. Interesting to learn about it, though!

[marshwiggle]

What kind of "Whatever Studies" are you all talking about?  In the places I'm familiar with, we have Religious Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies, Medieval Studies, Asian Studies, Italian Studies, and Russian/East European Studies. You may not think any humanities fields are worthwhile, but these are as rigorous as any other humanities program, and more interdisciplinary to boot. I think maybe it's time for academics to stop dissing any field that's not their own: "Those people are politically correct lightweights and their field of study is cartoonish!" We've got enough anti-intellectualism in the culture at large without the call coming from inside the house.

Overall, I agree, but I've seen problems in programs like "Dance Studies," rather than, say courses of study entitled "Dance ethnology," or "Dance history" which have the potential to be fairly rigorous.

The conversation I had with one student was dispiriting, in that, rather than learning chrological dance devopment in various places and climes, she was allowed to study "Themes in Dance," without learning any of the dance techniques applicable to the culture in question; nothing of the history, literature, or visual arts of the culture; and no sense of how religion, politics or historical invasions might have influenced or inflected the dance she wanted to study.

That's very much the way it seems to work with things like "Health Studies" (as opposed to "Health Science") or "Computer Studies" instead of "Computer Science". It's apparently a short form for "We take out all of the hard stuff like math, but talk about the subject as though you were actually learning something, and hope that potential employers won't notice the difference." So "Dance Studies" not including much actual dance is right on point.

And disciplines run by activists often also have the "Studies" label, and are basically dedicated to promoting an ideological viewpoint rather than actually trying to discover the truth, whatever it may be.