Reports on Periodic Review Academic Programs
Institution: Towson University
Academic unit: Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Program(s) reviewed: Philosophy, BA/BS
Year in which the review process was Completed and Names(s) of External Reviewer(s):
2010, Anthony Preus, Binghampton University
Enrollments and Degrees Awarded for Each of the Past Five Years in This Program:
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
Fall Enrollment
34
69
71
68
53
Degrees Awarded
9
18
14
18
13
Credit Hr
2450
2270
2333
2322
2601
Enrollment
Summary of the Internal and External Review:
Demand for philosophy courses and for the major has been growing. By Spring 2009,
philosophy enrolled 1108 students, up 677 from the 431 who enrolled in 2006. Between 60
and 65 students declare a philosophy major per year. Currently, we have 113 philosophy
majors and 29 minors, including graduating seniors. Demand for philosophy courses remains
heavier in lower division courses and in PHIL 371: Business Ethics. We anticipate an increase in
demand given our projected participation in the new CORE and Towson’s projected growth to
25,000 students. In fall 2009 the Department enrolled 1557 students in 56 classes.
Strengths:
Excellence of faculty and richness of the curriculum: Dr. Preus’ review confirmed that the
academic excellence of our curriculum and the outstanding quality of our faculty’s teaching and
scholarship are our most important strengths. He found that our faculty, teaching and research
reinforce each other. He noted that some of us involve students in our research and encourage
students to publish their work and present papers at the yearly colloquium.
Our students are all quite active: we have a philosophy forum, a yearly colloquium (fall term),
and a yearly undergraduate conference (Spring term). We have two endowed speaker’s series
that foster philosophical dialogue within the community and for which our graduates return to
campus. Last year, our students entered in Maryland’s Ethics Bowl and continue to participate.
Effective Advising: We have a fine advising segment in our website, and we are proactive in our
approach to advising: we invite students to meet with us well before registration, we meet
them as a group in the context of the philosophy forum, and the chairperson meets with all
students whose GPA falls either above 3.5 or below 1.9. The first group learns about
distinguished scholarships and the latter about strategies for improving their academic
performance.
Fruitful Assessment: We are assessing instruments for teaching, advising, and student
development. We analyze the data regularly and periodically review the instruments created
by the department with a view to improving their use.
Areas for Improvement:
A weakness we found, and our review noted, concerns the lack of a specialist in theory of
knowledge, philosophy of language and/or metaphysics. Although we teach some aspect of all
three in our other courses, the absence of a specialist prevents us from collaborative research
in this area and from developing additional courses that we need for supporting our applied
philosophy approach.
Departmental/college/institutional action plan for addressing recommendations, including mechanisms for
following up and assessing progress:
Given that at least six of our nine professors have expertise in Ethics, Social Political Philosophy,
and/or some application of philosophy, we consider it worthwhile to focus our major on ethics
and the application of philosophy. Our aim is to become the best undergraduate program in
the east coast offering such expertise.
Strategy 1: Formally request funding and a slot for one additional full-time tenure line.
To that end, we initially determined we needed two additional tenure lines: On to fill the gap
we have in analytical philosophy (Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language, and Epistemology) and
the second to support the applied/practical aspect we offer. Our reviewer pointed out that we
could combine the two into one line and we agree that if given a line we would find a person
that combines the needed qualifications to ensure the success of our program. Having a person
with expertise in at least one of the mentioned areas (Epistemology, Metaphysics, and/or
Philosophy of language) and able to teach at least one other would better prepare our students
for future work in the field and future implementation of their philosophical knowledge in
business and other areas of work. Programs in applied philosophy that have failed did not
provide a strong background in philosophy per se and rushed to apply without properly
knowing.
Our emphasis would allow our students to experience philosophy at work in the physical and
medical sciences, psychology, fine arts, business and economics, education, computer science
and the like. Our majors would share some classes with students from the various areas
mentioned and would achieve a truly interdisciplinary understanding of contemporary issues
and values.
Anticipated time frame: Request position in AY 2011, conduct search and hire in AY 2012
Strategy 2: To address this need in the short term, we plan to offer a course on Theory of
Knowledge taught by an ethicist. In addition, we will continue to support an adjunct to teach
Metaphysics. While not ideal, these measures can carry us through the difficult economic
years, but are not supportive of the excellence we seek.
Anticipated time frame: In place for AY 2011
Assessment Plan: The effectiveness of either approach will be assessed (1) in our assessment of
students’ outcomes (2) in our assessment of alumni success and (3) in our next periodic review.
We should see a marked improvement in the quality of the work produced by our students.
Submitted by: Ann F. Ashbaugh, Chair
Date of submission: September 10, 2010
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