This week, the UNC Board of Governors decided to cut some of the majors offered by universities. To me, as a student of Appalachian State University, the move is reminiscent of the "program prioritization" initiative that our previous provost did last year.
That's not a good thing - and that is an understatement.
I, like many of my professors and classmates, find the culling of programs to be symptomatic of the neoliberal assault on higher education. It is even more distressing because so many of the programs cut are education majors, further illustrating the lack of commitment to quality education in this state, as if that was not already painfully clear given the pitifully salaries that public school teachers receive. Perhaps the cutting of education majors is merely the result of the cutting of the NC Teaching Fellows program.
That's not a good thing - and that is an understatement.
I, like many of my professors and classmates, find the culling of programs to be symptomatic of the neoliberal assault on higher education. It is even more distressing because so many of the programs cut are education majors, further illustrating the lack of commitment to quality education in this state, as if that was not already painfully clear given the pitifully salaries that public school teachers receive. Perhaps the cutting of education majors is merely the result of the cutting of the NC Teaching Fellows program.