October 26, 2009

Discussions, Roundtables on the Future of the University Sponsored by UCSB

The California Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960 was built on a foundation of state-supported higher education. That plan and its promise are now in jeopardy. In a series of events titled "The Future of the University," the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) at UC Santa Barbara will explore the immediate UC budget crisis and its intersection with the longstanding crisis in the humanities. The series will include roundtable discussions on the future of graduate and undergraduate education, on publishing in the humanities, and on the fate of the humanities in a university run on a business model. All events are free and open to the public.

The series begins with "The Future of Graduate Education in the Humanities," at 4 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building. A group of UCSB faculty members will discuss innovative graduate programs and initiatives that transcend disciplinary boundaries and train new students for the new intellectual, professional, and economic landscape of the 21st century.

Participants include David Marshall, dean of UCSB's Division of Humanities and Fine Arts and executive dean of the College of Letters & Science; Mary Bucholtz, professor of linguistics; Susan Derwin, professor of German, Slavic, and Semitic Studies; Carl Gutierrez-Jones, professor of English; Alan Liu, professor of English; Patrick McCray, associate professor of history; and Janet Walker, professor of film and media studies.

The second event, "The Future of the University," will take place at 3 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, in the McCune Conference Room. The speakers will be Jennifer Washburn, author of the critically acclaimed "University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education," and Dean Marshall, a national leader in making the case for the value of the arts and humanities. Washburn will speak on "University Inc.: Why Public Knowledge and Public Education Are At Risk." Marshall will discuss "The Plight of the Humanities in a Public Research University." Their presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion.

At a time when the California budget crisis threatens the future of the University of California as a public institution, this roundtable hopes to elicit a discussion on the increasing trends toward privatization, the imposition of business models on higher education, and the special challenges and responsibilities public research universities face.

Additional events are scheduled for winter and spring quarters. On Thursday, January 21, the IHC and the American Cultures and Global Contexts Center will sponsor a panel discussion on the impact of the budget cuts on diversity at UC. Also during winter quarter, a roundtable on the future of undergraduate education will focus on the status of a liberal arts education at UCSB.

On Wednesday, April 7, Chris Newfield, professor of English at UCSB and the author of "Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class," will discuss the decline in public funding for higher education in a talk titled "The Anatomy of the UC Budget."

Other topics to be addressed during spring quarter are publishing in the humanities and the changing job market for humanities scholars.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.