The situation at the University of Montana...

rom: Lisa Parks [mailto:parks@filmandmedia.ucsb.edu] 
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 11:38 AM
To: Michel Valentin <Vvobjecta@bresnan.net>
Subject: Re:

Hi 

I just posted this comment: 

I am a proud alumni of University of Montana and have been a Professor at University of California-Santa Barbara for nearly 20 years in the humanities. The current situation at UM is appalling -- particularly the proposal to eliminate 52 faculty positions. I cannot believe the lack of strategic thinking on the part of UM leadership and the inability to recognize the humanities as the core engine of public higher education. UM should be trying to use the humanities and their unique position in MT (the legacy of the Western writing programs there, for instance) to attract students from throughout the state, the region, and the world. My classes at UM in the late 1980s and early 1990s were the launch pad for my very fulfilling academic career and I cannot imagine a UM where future students would not have those same opportunities. I studied history and political science with a focus on international relations at UM -- and courses from Richard Drake, Michel Valentin, Ron Perrin, John Photiades, Bill Chaloupka, and others gave me a solid foundation for entering a very challenging and demanding profession. I eventually earned a PhD in the field of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a field which UM did not have at the time. But now UM has a Media Arts department and should be trying to grow that department as a way of expanding the humanities and arts, and attracting students and training them for the 21st century. It should also build on its strengths in global studies, languages, native american studies, and journalism rather than retrench and retract these programs. Why not develop a task force made up of alumns from UM who are now working at research 1 universities and have us consult and help work through this budgetary crisis??!!! The mentality shown by UM leadership thus far suggests that an intellectual inversion layer has set in and there is a need to reach out to others across the country who have worked through and resolved budgetary crises and enrollment fluctuations. I am a former lady Griz too -- sports programs and revenues will never save higher education. There is a need for intellectual vision and leadership at the top!!!! I support all faculty and students who want to save and reinvigorate the humanities and arts at UM in ways that will attract more students and faculty in the near future. There is clearly a need for a reorientation of UM's administrative thinking and priorities. Montanans deserve better than this! And the world needs Montanans who are well-trained in the humanities and arts!!!!!! Don't give up!!!!!