Finding Common Ground. Creative Writing Book Review

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Finding Common Ground
In these selected articles, it is abundantly clear that the core theme is the onslaught against humanities and arts departments in modern universities, and in particular at SUNY Albany. In all these texts, it is clear that SUNY Albany is currently struggling to meet its financial obligations to every department of the university due to the reduction in the funds it is allocated from government. Because of this, the President of SUNY Albany, George Philip, posits that the only way to ensure the university remains financially sound is to cut off departments and programs that cannot source funding on their own and only maintain those that contribute financially by attracting grants and research contracts and funding. At the same time, the rhetorical situation emerging from these articles centers on the role and importance of the humanities and arts in universities and in the overall education of students. While the university essentially considers these departments dead and of little to no value to the holistic education of students in preparation for the job market, the critics of this position argue that arts and humanities are quintessential to a well-educated student populace. It is this dissonance in perspective that essentially grounds the rhetoric of all parties.
In his argument, George Philip essentially argues that the university simply has no funds to maintain all active departments due to reductions in financial allocations to the institution (CBS 6 Staff). Because of this, he proposes eliminating humanity and arts departments that have lower attendance and which are not profitable. To justify his argument, he posits that short term measures are incompatible for developing sustainability for the university, and the only way to adjust is by eliminating such departments (CBS 6 Staff). This is a core fallacy because it essentially assumes that no effective short-term solutions can be developed to mitigate the current financial struggles of the university and the onslaught targeting arts and humanities departments (CBS 6 Staff). To rationalize his position, however, he asserts that the sizing down applies to all the departments across the university, which is aiming to find common ground with those opposing his proposed solution.
In Gregory Petsko’s open letter in response to the position of the SUNY Albany President’s decision to termin...