Shafer-Landau from Wisconsin to North Carolina

[ianfaircloud]

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2015/03/shafer-landau-from-wisconsin-to-north-carolina.html

 

In case anyone missed it: This is very big news for some people who are considering UNC Chapel Hill or UW Madison. It's a real loss to UW Madison and gain to Chapel Hill. Also, if you applied to UW Madison and mentioned an AOI of metaethics or ethics generally, I wonder whether this move changed anything in evaluation of your application. (E.g. for those who mentioned they want to work with Russ Shafer-Laundau.)

[slarcos]

Great. The only reason I was interested in UW-Madison in the first place was because of Shafer-Landau and the day I hear I've been waitlisted there this gets announced ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ianfaircloud]

It's huge, and it's a real shame for those who looked forward to working with him in Madison. Thing is, he's such a key figure there. Just to offer some encouragement: When departments lose someone big, often they try to compensate with new hires. Of course I have no information to indicate whether UW Madison will do this. I know that if I were dean of the school of arts and sciences at Madison, I would be thinking very seriously about how to maintain the strength of the philosophy department. For one thing, Madison has drawn in a respectable crowd for an annual conference on metaethics, which I have to believe would be affected after this departure.

 

Edit: Also, not to neglect the UNC aspect of the story. UNC just lost Bob Adams to retirement not long ago. Adams of course is (among other things) a strong metaethicist. UNC's hire of Shafer-Landau is an effort to compensate. See how that works? So those at UNC are really fortunate.

Edited March 3, 2015 by ianfaircloud

[philstudent1991]

I wonder what will become of the Wisconsin Workshop in Metaethics, as you alluded to. 

 

This seems all around unfortunate for students interested in metaethics, as top names become more centralized at the top. Great for students at those programs, but less access to top scholars for others. 

Edited March 3, 2015 by philstudent1991

[PartyupDMX]

If Simon Blackburn is still at Chapel Hill (if memory serves, he has a joint appointment to UNC-CH and Oxford), then the addition of Shafer-Landau will make UNC a meta-ethicist's wet dream.

[NathanKellen]

Blackburn is still at UNC, yes.

 

The most interesting aspect of this (to outsiders with nothing invested) will be to see how Madison responds. Given their government, I'm not certain it'll be easier to get a new hire (AT-AT Walker has an uneasy relationship with education, at best).

[slarcos]

I suspect that the possibility of Scott Walker's $300 million budget cut to the UW system will make it tough for any new hires. Not sure if this played a role with Schafer-Landau's decision but he jumped ship at the right moment. 

 

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/feb/20/rebecca-blank/scott-walkers-300-million-budget-cut-looming-uw-ma/

[Monadology]

I'm not sure how much is appropriate to say, but there is another UW Madison faculty who is in the process of applying out (they have not been offered a job yet to my knowledge, hence I am not sure whether it is appropriate for me to say more). I suspect that Scott Walker is driving faculty away. Anyone considering offers from UW Madison should ask any faculty they are interested in working with whether they plan to stick around. Having faculty leave/the Scott Walker budget cut in the background should make this a perfectly reasonable question to ask (I think it is a good question for any prospective student to ask regardless, but it can feel awkward to ask when there is no apparent motivation for worrying). 

Edited March 3, 2015 by Monadology

[a_for_aporia]

And I'm sure everyone has seen this by now, but since it's so relevant, I'll post it anyway: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2015/03/right-wing-critics-of-higher-ed-in-wisconsin-apparently-dont-understand-how-markets-work.html

[Structural_Realist]

Hey All,

I'm coming out of gradcafe retirement to talk about the situation here at UW-Madison. After talking to Russ, I can confirm that the Scott Walker budget was *entirely irrelevant* to Russ' decision to leave. Madison made him a generous retention offer, and, suffice it to say, he is not leaving because of money (or perks). Our department is well-liked by the administration, so it is likely that we will be able to retain other faculty members who are recruited (to put this in perspective, we recently were able to keep a faculty member who was recruited by the University of Pittsburgh). To be more explicit, Russ is not predicting a mass exodus, and he has no evidence that other faculty members are trying to leave.

So that's the good news. Here is the bad news:

(1) Russ will be taking the metaethics workshop with him.

(2) Due to Scott Walker, there is a 0% chance that we will be able to make a senior offer in the next three years.

If I can help answer any questions about UW-Madison, feel free to contact me. For what it's worth, I love it here. Although we're facing a setback, I can't think of a more supportive community with whom to face it.

Structural_Realist

Edited March 5, 2015 by Structural_Realist

[wandajune]

I'm also a current graduate student at UW-Madison. I'll just echo what Structural_Realist has said about the Walker budget having nothing to do with the departure. Incoming students shouldn't be worried that the budget is going to drive faculty away. 

 

I also really love the department and believe that Wisconsin is a great place to study philosophy (though it's not as strong in metaethics, now). I would be happy to chat in a PM with anyone who is considering the program.

Edited March 5, 2015 by wandajune

[ianfaircloud]

I'm also a current graduate student at UW-Madison. I'll just echo what Structural_Realist has said about the Walker budget having nothing to do with the departure. Incoming students shouldn't be worried that the budget is going to drive faculty away. 

 

I also really love the department and believe that Wisconsin is a great place to study philosophy (though it's not as strong in metaethics, now). I would be happy to chat in a PM with anyone who is considering the program.

 

Let me say that in my limited experience of philosophy programs, one sign that a program is healthy is that its students are enthusiastically willing to promote the program. I'll also say, just to further support the previous two posters, that I think Madison, Wisconsin, is a fine place. It's an interesting city with culture and history, and UW Madison is one of the best of the larger state schools.

 

I'll also take an opportunity to give a wider defense of the Midwest more generally. People from the East Coast, at least in my experience, often have a lot of misconceptions about the Midwest. That's because they often hear only the worst things about it. (It's similar to how I heard bad things about Philly. Turns out that Philly is a great place.) I, myself, am from the middle of the country, and I'm proud of my background.

[tidbits]

While I don't know exactly whom Monadology is talking about above, if it's a junior faculty member it's worth remembering that assistant professors almost always apply out as they approach tenure.  Even if they're fairly confident they'll receive tenure and aren't interested in leaving their home institution, receiving an outside offer provides leverage in negotiating the salary bump that comes with tenure.  So in general one shouldn't read too much into such applications.

[Monadology]

I apologize for my inaccurate speculations (though it was certainly not my intent to raise any worries about some kind of 'mass exodus'). I don't know if the situation is as tidbits described for the faculty member I have in mind, but it is certainly possible. 

Edited March 5, 2015 by Monadology

[overoverover]

Daily Nous posted that UC Irvine made 5 senior offers, including to Sarah Paul from Madison: http://dailynous.com/2015/03/11/uc-irvine-makes-five-senior-offers/

[Needle in the Hay]

Another aspect of this story that has not been mentioned is that Schafer- Landau will be taking Jan Boxill's place as the director of the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC. The latter was just fired at UNC due to her involvement in the academic scandal that took place there. It seems likely that this is part of what motivated UNC to bring Schafer- Landau on board. I should add that this is speculative, as I have not spoken with anyone at UNC about this.

[sidebysondheim]

Another aspect of this story that has not been mentioned is that Schafer- Landau will be taking Jan Boxill's place as the director of the Parr Center for Ethics at UNC. The latter was just fired at UNC due to her involvement in the academic scandal that took place there. It seems likely that this is part of what motivated UNC to bring Schafer- Landau on board. I should add that this is speculative, as I have not spoken with anyone at UNC about this.

 

Someone from UNC is probably more in the know than I am. But Jan Boxill was not fired (again, to the best of my knowledge) but she did step down/was removed from her place as the director of the Parr Center after the scandal. UNC then put out a job opening for someone in ethics for the purpose of having a new director of the Parr Center (so that Sayre-McCord isn't pulling double duty with both the Parr Center at the PPE minor). Shafer-Landau is fulfilling that role as director. 

[Duns Eith]

Someone from UNC is probably more in the know than I am. But Jan Boxill was not fired (again, to the best of my knowledge) but she did step down/was removed from her place as the director of the Parr Center after the scandal. UNC then put out a job opening for someone in ethics for the purpose of having a new director of the Parr Center (so that Sayre-McCord isn't pulling double duty with both the Parr Center at the PPE minor). Shafer-Landau is fulfilling that role as director. 

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/unc-scandal/article12601562.html

 

Sounds like she's gone.

[sidebysondheim]

Thanks for the info. I hadn't heard about that yet.

[riverstyx]

Daily Nous posted that UC Irvine made 5 senior offers, including to Sarah Paul from Madison: http://dailynous.com/2015/03/11/uc-irvine-makes-five-senior-offers/

The link doesn't work. Is Sarah Paul definitely accepting an offer from UC Irvine and leaving Wisconsin?

[philstudent1991]

The link doesn't work. Is Sarah Paul definitely accepting an offer from UC Irvine and leaving Wisconsin?

It worked for me earlier but it is broken for me now as well. No, it only listed five offers made. No news on the status of said offers. 

[overoverover]

Yeah, seems DN took down the post. It only said the offer was made.

[riverstyx]

It worked for me earlier but it is broken for me now as well. No, it only listed five offers made. No news on the status of said offers. 

 

Yeah, seems DN took down the post. It only said the offer was made.

I put down that I wanted to work with Sarah Paul at Wisconsin. I am currently wait listed there now. I wonder if it will negatively affect my application if she goes to UC Irvine...

[herenowagain]

I put down that I wanted to work with Sarah Paul at Wisconsin. I am currently wait listed there now. I wonder if it will negatively affect my application if she goes to UC Irvine...

 

Probably only if she was the only person you put down you wanted to work with.

 

I aim to mention my intent to work with a few faculty in my letter just in case 1 ends up leaving, being hated by the rest of the faculty, not actually work there anymore, etc. 

 

As long as you didn't explicitly say you were coming to work with her and no one else, you are probably okay.

[riverstyx]

Probably only if she was the only person you put down you wanted to work with.

 

I aim to mention my intent to work with a few faculty in my letter just in case 1 ends up leaving, being hated by the rest of the faculty, not actually work there anymore, etc. 

 

As long as you didn't explicitly say you were coming to work with her and no one else, you are probably okay.

Well unfortunately I did say I wanted to work with her, and I put no one else. So *sigh* I probably have to give the another personal statement.