Please read each peer revoew and respond for each one .
Minimum 100 Words for each response .
Peer 1 ( Omaimah Syed)
According to the president of SUNY Albany, George M. Philip, the University of Albany will be going through budget challenges, a cut of 32 million, which will result in changes like job cuts, suspension of new admissions to programs like Classics, French, Italian, Russian, and Theatre, decrease in scholarships and delay in snow removal (Philip). Some of the fallacies in his letter includes not making funds available for classes but instead renovating and building projects, and not giving an option for students and faculty to address their comments/concern by arranging another town hall meeting but instead resorted to writing out a letter to the school. He tried to establish common ground by promising the students that they will continue the programs they are currently enrolled in, to avoid disturbances due to these new changes.
The author, Stanley Fish, is very concerned in his article since President Philip cut the humanities program over budget cuts. He stated that the program was occupied by limited students, hence they got cut and that the meeting was organized at an odd time due to which it had very low attendees (Fish). Some of the fallacies in his article are that he is very passionate about his department only and not other departments or other concerns like the job cuts and decrease in scholarships. He established the common ground by stating that nothing can be done at this point as the president has already made the decision.
The author, Gregory A. Petsko, is upset as per the decision made by president Philip on the new changes at the State University of New York at Albany over budget cuts. He states that he faced a similar situation at this Brandeis University where he worked and the decisions were made involving the whole faculty unlike the authoritarian style used by president Philip (Petsko). He also argued the way the town hall meeting was conducted with very few attendees and justifying it stating limited availability of large venue options in spite of being the president (Petsko). One of the fallacies in this article is his tone used to address and criticize president Philip directly as it was a little harsh but was amusing as well.
I consider establishing a common ground to be an effective startegy in persuasion as it helps the readers to connect with the article especially when they have opposite views. For instance, president Philip tried to establish common ground with the students stating that they can continue their enrolled classes without any disturbances from the new changes.
Works Cited
Fish, Stanley. “The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives.” New York Times, 2010.
Petsko, Gregory A. “A Faustian Bargain.” Genome Biology, BioMed Central, 31 Oct. 2010, https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/gb-2010-11-10-138.
Philip, George M. “Budget cuts at SUNY Albany to Hit Academic Programs.” University of Albany State University of New York, 2010, pp. 1-5.
Peer 2 ( Catalana Walsh)
The issue begins with what appears to be a letter issued to employees at the University of Albany, leaked to CBS channel 6 by interns working at the campus. It is difficult to determine for certain because the link at the cited work section, would not open. In this letter that is addressed to ‘Members of the Campus Community’, President George M. Philip explains that due to budget cuts and the lack of being able to cut into state funding, he is having to close programs that he sees as being the lesser utilized classes. In his letter he “issued a directive today to suspend all new admissions to five program areas – Classics, French, Italian, Russian, and Theatre” (Philip) Mr. Philip addresses just about any angle that could be brough into question regarding the situation prior closing his letter. He thought ahead of what the arguers might be able to say.
In the blog written by Stanley Fish, he is highly critical, and I would say borderline suspicious of how Mr. Philip handled the situation as well as the delivery of the information the employees. Without saying it, it is almost implied that Mr. Fish is calling Mr. Philip a coward for “little notice, he called a town hall meeting for Friday afternoon, Oct. 1, when he could be sure that almost no academic personnel would be hanging around. In an e-mail sent the same day, he noted the “unfortunate timing,” but pleaded the “limited availability of appropriate large venue options.” (Fish). Mr. Fish also appears to find it suspicious that Mr. Philip “also a legal justification in advance of any legal action.” (Fish)
I enjoyed the delivery of Gregory A Petsko’s article because it grabbed my attention by stating the obvious that “Probably the last thing you need at this moment is someone else from outside your university complaining about your decision.” (Petsko) I found it funny because complaining is exactly what Mr. Petsko intended to do. Mr. Petsko also finds a way to reference each individual humanities class that by creating an example of how Mr. Philip actions, were from life lessons taught through the French, Russian, Italian, Classic and Theatre. He goes on further to explain “You see, the reason that humanities classes have low enrollment is not because students these days are clamoring for more relevant courses; it’s because administrators like you, and spineless faculty, have stopped setting distribution requirements and started allowing students to choose their own academic programs – something I feel is a complete abrogation of the duty.” (Petsko) to scold Mr. Philip for his decisions.
I think the common ground in all three pieces is that each writer disapproves of cutting humanities classes from the college. Mr. Philip dislikes having to cut the classes and staff, this is evident in his attempt to justify his actions so that people would perhaps not judge him so harshly or believe he didn’t try to protect them. I can tell from the letter that he was prepared for the backlash. I think Mr. Fish and Mr. Petsko dislike Mr. Philip for him having to cut the courses. Both Mr. Fish and Mr. Petsko believe that more could have been done though to protect the course from being cut.
Work Cited
Philip, George M. Budget Cuts at SUNY Albany to Hit Academic Programs, 1 Oct. 2010, pp. 1–5.
Fish, Stanley. “The Crisis of the Humanities Officially Arrives.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2010, https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-crisis-of-the-humanities-officially-arrives/.
Petsko, Gregory A. “A Faustian Bargain.” Genome Biology, BioMed Central, 31 Oct. 2010, https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/gb-2010-11-10-138.
Last Completed Projects
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