14 July 2010 (Bastille Day, coincidentally)
Dean Meric Gertler
100 St. George St., Room 2005
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3
Dear Dean Gertler:
As a U of T alumnus and a PhD candidate in a Canadian university, I object to your plan to roll up yet more of the University of Toronto's research and teaching capacity in the humanities.
Already as I was leaving the U of T ten years ago this direction was discernible. The administration of the university was ceasing really to talk to its community and began to talk over our heads to a broader business and policy elite. As a highly involved undergraduate student, I saw (in my latter years) several depressing instances of university officers (at the College, Faculty and University levels) preferring to support empty initiatives that had a public relations value over what ought to have been the real work of an institution of research and of higher learning. The university began consistently to pursue prestige at the expense of genuine quality and universality. I felt anxious for its future. I now see that the reality has exceeded even my worst fears, then.
The U of T is increasingly becoming an international centre (albeit a second tier one) in a limited range of disciplines - pure and applied
sciences, economics, and, especially, public policy areas - disciplines in which it is possible to win a Nobel Prize or that land its leading lights in the media spotlight. Never mind that these are not the traditional strengths of a university that once had truly original and important contributions to make in the humanities. The university that was home to the likes of Harold Innis, Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan might have had fewer prospects for Nobel Prizes; but the sacrificing of that former state for this latter state indicates an institution that has given up on knowledge, insight, and - especially - a uniquely Canadian contribution. Instead it puts out pretty press releases. And it has long since surrendered to the interests of its corporate donors, I fear. I must add that I find your observation, quoted in the Globe and Mail, that Comparative Literature has proven itself so successful it isn't needed anymore silly, and obviously disingenuous.
When my friends and colleagues who are U of T alumni and I attend conferences abroad, people sometimes ask what happened to the U of T. It used to be something very special, they say, but now it's becoming just another (and distinctly second-rate) public university. When I go to conferences in Canada, of course, members of the University of Toronto are almost never there. The university appears to regard its peers (like some anxious social climber) as an embarrassment to it now. The U of T used to aim to be (and it was) the best university in Canada - but a university very much in dialogue with Canada. Its principal glory was the range of research and teaching it undertook, mostly in the humanities. It now aims to be a "first class North American public research university," one, it s eems, that 'must make hard choices', as it is too often put. As a result, the U of T may have gained a small part of the world but it appears to have lost its soul.
Now it is fast becoming a place in which the weaker part of the PhD product of certain prestigious American schools (no offense: I'm sure I don't mean you, personally) end up teaching an increasingly international student body in a square mile of pretty old buildings that just happen to be in central Toronto. If they were in Philadelphia or Melbourne or Cincinnati, would anything really change? The university photographs well and has pretty press releases but it is losing its capacity to change this country or the scholarly world.
Maybe it's not too late to turn things around? I hope so.
In the meantime, I'm left to advise interested potential students in the humanities to consider a number of comprehensive universities in Canada that are actually much more dynamic places now, that is, intellectually. I'm afraid I've also convinced one (small) donor I know to suspend his gift to the U of T. He does not actually support an institution that cuts humanities but expands its business school. Why should he continue to support these perverse ends financially? And so, I hope that the loss - symbolic no doubt, for you - of his contribution may reflect our shared belief that this university, which we still tend to regard as our university, is being led in a bad direction. I hope this little note may lead you to reflect on the direction you and the rest of the phalanx of deans and senior administrators at Canadian research universities are leading us all. I mean no offense but I am angry and tired and disappointed to see that the gutting of the humanities continues apace. In this respect, alas, I fear the U of T still is a leader in Canadian higher education.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Luke Nicholson, 9T9
& PhD candidate, Concordia University
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