Prioritization BS'ery

Good evening friends and readers!!!

So, I'm taking a moment to post about something that's not (totally) related to my time abroad. You see, my home-school (Columbia College Chicago) has been going through this asinine prioritization process recently. Basically, the high mucky-mucks are looking to justify their own exorbitant salaries by cutting wherever they think they can...all in the name of the students, of course. Well, Louise Love—the interim provost and not a stranger to controversial administrative decisions—included the following statement in her recent prioritization recommendations:

“Unfortunately, the one major that is offered by the [Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences] seems to have strayed from its founding principles. Originally envisioned as an interdisciplinary liberal arts option, the Cultural Studies major and its faculty have become somewhat isolated by emphasizing cultural studies as a unique discipline. The program has even alienated some of the most distinguished members of its own department. Therefore, I recommend that the major in Cultural Studies be phased out and the minor continued.” Dr. Louise Love's Prioritization Recommendations.

Putting aside for a moment the fact that her rationale seems completely political and personal in nature—note, for instance, the fact that she doesn't mention any way(s) in which this approach is detrimental to students—it friggin' threatens the program that I've devoted my academic life to for the last three-going-on-four years! (Not to mention the fact that because it is such a rigorous program that I've had virtually no social life in all that time either!)

So, I have joined many of my peers in writing letters to Dr. Love—as well as Dr. Carter (the president) and Mr. Turner (Chairman of CCC's Board of Trustees...but that email bounced back)—in hopes that she will either rescind her recommendation, or that it will be rejected by Columbia's higher-ups.

If anyone would like to join us in voicing your support for this amazing discipline's continued presence at CCC, please feel free to write either Drs. Love (llove@colum.edu) or Carter (wcarter@colum.edu) to tell them as much. Thank you!

My letter:

Dear Ms. Love,

My name is Brett King and I am currently a third-year Cultural Studies major / Women’s & Gender Studies minor at Columbia College Chicago. Since January of this year, I have also been part of the Cultural Studies exchange program with the University of East London. I ask you to grant special attention to this last part for two reasons:

(1) If not for the magnificent guidance and instruction I have received at the hands of CCC’s Cultural Studies faculty—in particular, Drs. Esterrich and Gunkel—and the amazing courses I have been able to take as part of the Cultural Studies program, I would not currently have this opportunity to live and study in my favorite city, nor would I have encountered those ‘little things’ about life at another institution that make CCC seem all the more special; also,

(2) It is only because I am on the other side of the Atlantic that I have not directly joined my peers in protest to your recent prioritization recommendations. Regarding your recommendations I was deeply troubled by what I saw across the board, but it was specifically your recommendation to phase out the Cultural Studies major that concerned me most.

If I might be so bold, I hope you will allow me a moment to contextualize exactly why this move is so troubling to me, beyond the fact that Cultural Studies is my program of study.

First and foremost, I do not consider myself a ‘typical’ CCC student: on my next birthday I will be 31 years old; I have been in a loving, stable relationship for the last eight years; and, I have not relied on my parents for financial support for the last 12. This means that the choice to attend Columbia—the choice to pay the already exorbitant tuition costs (a large chunk of which is dispersed amongst members of the administration whom I’ve never had the opportunity to meet or even see)—was carefully considered in terms of how it might benefit me in the long run. I found the eventual rationale I was looking for in the Cultural Studies program.

When I was first considering a return to school—I dropped out the first time (2000) due to a combination of financial reasons and the loss of a family member, which necessitated my working full-time—I gave Columbia only the most cursory of glances. My partner was enrolled here as a graduate student at the time, and he and his peers held considerable contempt for the school as a result of the ineptitude of their program’s leadership and systemic problems they saw within the administration. Personally speaking, I saw a lot of what CCC offered as being less academically and mentally stimulating than what I was looking for. In short, I wanted something real, something that could help me feel as if I was making a difference in world, something that would help me actually ‘create change’ in more than someone’s wardrobe. And then I came across the Cultural Studies program’s website, and saw reflected in their mission statement a program which would give me that ‘something’ I was hungry for!

(As an interesting aside, there is actually a quote from Dr. Carter himself under the ‘Students’ section of the Cultural Studies page, which says: “You chose your major because you had to. It was your passion: a strong and genuine desire to make the arts and media your life’s work. That passion will serve you well.” Dr. Carter is/was absolutely correct about this. I chose Cultural Studies because I was possessed by an overwhelming desire to do so; and, through my work therein, I have established networks with prominent figures in my area of interest, and even had my own work on soap operas’ usage of gendered transmedia considered by television scholars like Michael Niederman.)

Within your prioritization recommendation you write of the Cultural Studies major having been “envisioned as an interdisciplinary liberal arts option…[and] a unique discipline.” As with Dr. Carter’s quote above, you are absolutely correct: it is both of these things, operating simultaneously, which serves as the basis for so much of this program’s greatness. And yet, sadly, you make this duality sound like a bad thing when in fact it’s not.

Excepting the Math and Science courses I’ve taken at Columbia, there is not a single class wherein my Cultural Studies instruction has not come in handy: First Year Seminar—check; Oral History—check; Human Sexuality—check; and the list goes on and on. Cultural scholars like Foucault, Hall, and Williams have their work referenced in some way by almost every discipline taught at Columbia, and, because of the rigorous material and the high-expectations of the phenomenal Cultural Studies faculty, I have consistently found myself in a unique position of understanding such issues in my non-CS classes. Furthermore, because I am able to see things from such a multifaceted perspective, every single instructor I’ve learned under at both CCC and UEL—regardless of the subject (and including some of HHSS’ most distinguished members, such as Drs. McCarthy and Silverstein)—have commented in some way on my exceptionality as a student. In a great many respects, I owe this exceptionalism (and the solid 4.0 GPA that goes with it) to the high quality and high expectations of the Cultural Studies program.

There is still so much about the Cultural Studies program that I want to make mention of, such as the incredibly successful CSA conference which we hosted (and I volunteered at) last year, but I won’t in the interest of time. (That being said, please feel free to contact me for more insights if you so desire.)

I hope you will find reflected in the length of this letter a close approximation of the unbending passion and commitment I have towards CCC’s Cultural Studies program. Truly, words cannot express the debt of gratitude I owe for what I have found in my Cultural Studies classes, namely the ability to live-up to Columbia’s ‘create change’ motto to the fullest. As such, it is my sincerest—and most vehement—hope that you will reconsider and withdraw your proposal for the elimination of the Cultural Studies major.

In solidarity with the Cultural Studies students and faculty at both Columbia College Chicago and the University of East London, I am yours,

Most Respectfully,

Brett E. King