"Holding Pattern" Holding Pysch Down
Shannon Finn
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Opinion
As the psychology department gives its warmest wishes and best regards to Dr. Ernst as he departs at the end of the year, a cold feeling still remains. Maybe that draft is coming from more administrative winds.
Associate Provost David Whalen said with Ernst's departure, "It wouldn't be propitious to conduct a search when you aren't entirely sure what you are going to do with it."
Other than filling in the giant gap left in the department, I guess there really is no propitiousness in it at all. If they aren't going to make the search exhaustive, at least glance into it. Hell, fake it, so us new psychology students can learn from the best there is. Sure, getting the other psychology professors to cover classes is an easy and inexpensive solution, but a professor with a focus in social psychology is who just walked out the door. So maybe a social psychologist is what we need to cover the social psychology courses offered. The English Department doesn't have a modernist teach medieval literature. It would be equally inefficient to have a cognitive psychologist take over social psychology classes.
It's like ANY other major field here. Each person on the faculty has his or her own niche, his or her own specialty. Why should that be any different for the psychology department? I can understand there are hesitations to expand the department due to fewer numbers in classes and so on. But at least PRESERVE it. This is an institution that prides itself on education for education's sake. By putting a "holding pattern" on the psychology department, we run the risk of holding back personal growth in the students.
I do not have the luxury of being a senior where I can depart right along with a major element of the department. In fact, I declared my major just a few weeks ago, with the wide-eyed pure intention of engaging in arguably one of the truest forms of the liberal arts. Psychology touches every facet of life, and plays a part in every other concentration of study at the college. The absence of a quality professor such as Ernst amplifies the void that needs to be filled. With the pool of talents that remains in the department, drawing their attentions away from their specific branches of psychology to form this pattern compromises the already thin department size.
It is much like the legs of a chair. Saw off one of the legs and leave it in a "holding pattern." See how long it "holds up" before completely overturning. I am sure that with every keystroke I am sealing my fate here at Hillsdale. But the fate of me, other psych students and the Hillsdale Psychology Department as a whole cannot fade to the background. It would be putting liberal arts at stake. And burning it all the same.
Associate Provost David Whalen said with Ernst's departure, "It wouldn't be propitious to conduct a search when you aren't entirely sure what you are going to do with it."
Other than filling in the giant gap left in the department, I guess there really is no propitiousness in it at all. If they aren't going to make the search exhaustive, at least glance into it. Hell, fake it, so us new psychology students can learn from the best there is. Sure, getting the other psychology professors to cover classes is an easy and inexpensive solution, but a professor with a focus in social psychology is who just walked out the door. So maybe a social psychologist is what we need to cover the social psychology courses offered. The English Department doesn't have a modernist teach medieval literature. It would be equally inefficient to have a cognitive psychologist take over social psychology classes.
It's like ANY other major field here. Each person on the faculty has his or her own niche, his or her own specialty. Why should that be any different for the psychology department? I can understand there are hesitations to expand the department due to fewer numbers in classes and so on. But at least PRESERVE it. This is an institution that prides itself on education for education's sake. By putting a "holding pattern" on the psychology department, we run the risk of holding back personal growth in the students.
I do not have the luxury of being a senior where I can depart right along with a major element of the department. In fact, I declared my major just a few weeks ago, with the wide-eyed pure intention of engaging in arguably one of the truest forms of the liberal arts. Psychology touches every facet of life, and plays a part in every other concentration of study at the college. The absence of a quality professor such as Ernst amplifies the void that needs to be filled. With the pool of talents that remains in the department, drawing their attentions away from their specific branches of psychology to form this pattern compromises the already thin department size.
It is much like the legs of a chair. Saw off one of the legs and leave it in a "holding pattern." See how long it "holds up" before completely overturning. I am sure that with every keystroke I am sealing my fate here at Hillsdale. But the fate of me, other psych students and the Hillsdale Psychology Department as a whole cannot fade to the background. It would be putting liberal arts at stake. And burning it all the same.
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