Is the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy going to die?
I recently attended a wonderful Australasian conference of philosophy at ACU (the Australian Catholic University), hosted by the Dianoia institute. Now the suits want to shut it down. I wanted to share their protest here:
“The Dianoia Institute of Philosophy was established with the mission of enhancing ACU's research profile in philosophy.
After our creation, ACU went from being unranked in the Philosophical Gourmet Report to being the 2nd highest ranked Catholic university in the English-speaking world, behind @Philosophy_ND, and the 3rd highest ranked university in Australasia.
We oversaw a large increase in applications for graduate study in Philosophy at ACU. Our MPhil students went on to study at USC, Toronto, and Michigan. We did not exist long enough for our PhD students to complete their study. At the same time, ACU was spending $226 million on an extravagant building, complete with a conservatory, escalators, sculptures and artwork on every floor, and a rooftop basketball court.
Now, facing a $30 million shortfall, ACU has decided that Dianoia needs to be disestablished. Our 13 philosophers have been invited to apply for 4 positions in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry.
Many of us left secure, tenured or tenure-track, employment to come to Dianoia. We did this because ACU told us it was committed to investing in Philosophy. Many of us only arrived last year. We're now paying our own relocation expenses to move back to our home countries.
Others of us moved to Melbourne with partners who have established their own, unmoveable careers. We're facing the prospect of choosing between changing careers and living on the other side of the world from our loved ones.”
Rhetorically it’s a brilliant, statement and a great example of moral force without whining. The only way I’d fault it is that it’s insufficiently graduate student focused. For some graduate students, this will be just as devastating as it is to the faculty, and they deserve more than a passing mention. Their careers will be held up (and a year is not an insignificant amount!) They may well have to move and pay relocation expenses. They will lose income. All the comments about spouses apply to them as well. Also, and perhaps this is pedantic, the Dianoia institute doesn’t have 13 philosophers- it has 13 philosophers who are faculty, and many more who are graduate students.
All around the world, universities seem to be building frightful numbers of new buildings, often with very inefficient space usage, often scarcely used, at great expense, often with hideous but costly architecture. My theory is that the increasingly professionalized managers want ‘runs on the board’ they can chuck onto their CV’s and don’t see research output as sufficient. Politicians want the same, and setup funds commensurately to maximize ribbon cutting ceremonies. Whatever the reason, it’s got to stop.