 "Photo: The Jewel City")
Philosophy is a key component of any liberal arts education. The Philosophy Department at UIC happens to be one of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' strongest.
"Someone very interested in the subject can get a very good education here," says Dr. Peter Hylton, Head of the Philosophy Department. Beyond the introductory level and especially at the 400 level, "it's pretty much only majors or someone who's majoring in something else but has studied philosophy [taking the course]. Those are often very good classes. [That is] very helpful in a subject where a lot of interaction and discussion is a large part of it. I think it's a very good program."
One of the curiosities of public higher education is that when an institution or a department is strong, it becomes a challenge to remain strong.
This curiosity "chiefly has to do with making sure people don't leave. Historically, over the long term, it's been a place that many extremely good people have been and left. When I came, seventeen years ago, the department was sort of in the middle of one of those phases where everybody seemed to be leaving. We hired a lot of very good people, almost all of whom are still here. But it's always a worry that people will leave for places that can pay them more, in various ways offer more attractive working conditions."
That is not to discount UIC's attractions as an institution. Just being in the city of Chicago is a major positive, and the support that many researchers receive around the university is another. In addition, the Philosophy Department is lucky to be a place where "for the most part [our faculty members] like each other. It's a group that gets on very well, which is not, you probably already figured this out, universal."
The department has 16 professors. LAS told them that their target number is 18. "We of course think it should be larger," says Dr. Hylton. "I suppose every department thinks that."
Asked what his department could do with eighteen or more professors instead of 16, Dr. Hylton says: "One is just to teach the undergraduate courses. We are teaching them at the moment but we're using more graduate students and adjuncts teaching 200 level courses and large 100 level courses. We're doing that more than in the past and more than we would like. It's also true that having a wider range of options [would be good], especially for teaching graduate students, which is a very important part of what we do."
Dr. Hylton adds: "Some people have a lot of graduate students to work with. I think there's a need there for more people to share that burden."
At the moment, the Department of Philosophy is going through a hire search. They are looking to hire someone in Moral or Political Philosophy, ideally someone with expertise in philosophy of race although they're not "insisting on it." Last year, the department had a search that was canceled, or "suspended," in November. This year, they expect that there will be no suspension of the job hire. "We hope we will actually hire somebody because we ought to be more than 16," says Dr. Hylton, who also expresses his "gratitude to the dean's office for matching offers and making good enough counter-offers, for the most part, and helping us to retain faculty."
Of course, he jokes, "one of the advantages of the recession is that fewer people are getting offers."
Beyond having to cancel a hire search last fall, the department has been impacted in ways big and small as a result of budget cuts. The department has had to be "less generous with faculty travel" to conferences. They have also had to be more selective about inviting people to give talks on campus. Interestingly, "not all faculty have phones in their offices anymore. This was entirely voluntary: anybody who wanted to keep their phone kept it. Since some have cellphones [office phones weren't] necessary."
As is the case with departments all over the university, Philosophy hasn't been able to offer raises to their faculty members, which some faculty are upset about. The university's inability to reward its faculty by at least keeping up with inflation is a serious challenge.
Despite these problems, the department of Philosophy is able to provide a good education to its students and has a lot to offer. How they'll respond to challenges now and into the future is unclear.
"Students should know," says Dr. Hylton, "[even though] maybe students don't care, but from my point of view the best thing [is that] it's a group of people that treats each other well and gets on well. Even has fun together. That's nice. The students should know [there are] really talented people here. Really terrific people. It takes a certain kind of mind to do this subject. Perhaps a rather odd kind of mind," he says, laughing. "There's a real resource here."
This is part five in a series of stories about the Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIC. Each week we will profile one department in LAS to tell its story. Students have a right to know the quality of their education.
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