It is a sad commentary on our nation's inability to grapple seriously with the severe problems of our educational system when a highly successful department in a state university - Classics at UMD College Park - faces elimination because of supposed budgetary difficulties and shortfalls - which they had nothing to do with. It is deplorable that Classics at UMD has to suffer the consequences for a not-quite-competent fundraising effort on the part of institutional Advancement. Classics folks are Classicists, not fundraisers - yet they are the ones who will bear the "rewards" of the failures of those who have not done the job they were hired expressly to do.
Meanwhile, Dean Harris, in his concerns over a future fiscal shortfall, seems to believe that these concerns are realities, that the future problems will not simply occur, but already have. He bears a striking similarity in his fiduciary clairvoyance to Apollo's Oracle at Delphi. The difference: even that divine eye had the prudence to couch its responses in ambiguous language. As for the condition of those human beings who were so sure of the rightness of their determinations/calculations, the Ancients had a damning term: "hubris". Such humans set themselves up for a fall. The Dean - the holder of a fleeting title, an administrator enamored of the power bestowed upon him by virtue of his office - forgets that he has many predecessors, and that those predecessors have many successors. I urge the Dean to show genuine foresight, to not close or force to become a dependant a department as successful in its efforts to turn out superior k-12 teachers for primary and secondary education as is UMD Classics. Is the Dean showing fiscal responsibility? Perhaps (Pennywise, pound foolish). Are his actions wise? In keeping with the best principles of Liberal Arts? In aid of the flagging education system? No.
The Dean wants to see Classics at UMD survive. Ironic, since he is penalizing the department for the very thing that makes it superior. Take a step back, Dean Harris. Lay the blame at the doorstep of those truly responsible; and put your money where your mouth is.
drg