Religion, philosophy programs worth preserving

On Thursday morning I walked into a philosophy class only to encounter a professor agitated that the whole religion and philosophy department was being called into a meeting with the dean. Soon word would get out about the results of that meeting: one discipline had been wiped out and the other had barely survived.

What disappoints me about this shortsighted decision is that it cuts out thought-intensive programs, much like last year's trimming down of the economics department. While it is a great benefit for college to prepare students for specific jobs, the main goal of a university is to stretch the minds of its pupils. They must know how to think in every situation the real world presents to them. Cutting philosophy and religion jeopardizes this goal.

Religious studies will be gone from Southern in less than 12 months, and with it will go classes that broaden students' horizons and help them understand religious diversity. Awareness of other religions and knowledge about how to cooperate with them is crucial for the modern world. Without these classes, we risk breeding misconceptions and fail to properly prepare our students for encountering unfamiliar cultures.

Philosophy, too, offers great value to students. It teaches them how to think logically and come to decisions on their own. Compromising rational inquiry by crippling the oldest academic discipline does not benefit the university. It does not help students to be prepared to think and innovate beyond college.

The philosophy major will struggle to remain viable going forward, due to the reduction in faculty with no foreseeable reduction in classes. The master's program has been cut, but most of the graduate-level classes were combined sections with classes necessary for the undergraduate major. The department will have to offer nearly the same number of classes, but will have fewer teachers available to do it.

Smaller majors like philosophy, religion and economics have so far experienced the brunt of cuts. The loss of a professor in such a small department has a much greater effect on offerings than the loss of someone in a larger program.

While I hate to see anyone let go, I feel that large and small departments should share the burden of cost-saving measures. If small departments are decimated one-by-one, the vibrancy and variety of Southern Miss's offerings will quickly suffer. As a result, it may become much more difficult to attract students who want greater choice.

I understand that the university must make difficult decisions in tough economic times. Core classes like comparative religion, though, make substantial money for the university due to their high enrollment. In fact, every introductory philosophy class and comparative religion class offered this semester is full.

With economic, student enrichment and program diversity reasons against it, I see much cause to lament this decision, and I intensely hope that it is not the last word on religion and philosophy at Southern Miss.

Mark Harris is a senior philosophy major from Mobile, Ala.