What is being said on campus about the Divinity School news?

[u/TravelinJack2224]

As a VDS alum this is super concerning that the university is taking over the divinity school. Is this being talked about at all?

[u/TravelinJack2224 → u/[deleted]]

There is Vanderbilt University, which is the undergraduate institution.

The different professional schools.. Divinity, Medical, Nursing, Education, ect are separate institutions and run separately from the university. Have their own money, their own Deans, basically their own entities

By the University taking over, they now have power for hiring/firing professors, admissions, could even be curriculum.. but the statement the University put out, and the reason this “receivership” traditionally happens, is that separate institution is failing financially and needs the support of the larger school to keep running. But the numbers of VDS don’t support this, and that’s where I wonder if there’s something deeper going on, particularly with this Chancellor.

[u/TravelinJack2224 → u/[deleted]]

I think to your point, even if the point of this isn’t truly nefarious, it does say something about the continued late stage capitalism we’re in and if something isn’t producing money it has no worth.

The humanities are certainly being viewed more and more as such.. education for the sake of learning and being well rounded is rapidly deteriorating and if you’re degree isn’t deemed something that can “produce” it’s instantly labeled a “worthless degree” and won’t make the university money.. so, let’s get rid of it.

Shame and scary.

[u/ButtrickHallBuddy → u/[deleted]]

now this forced merger), for no apparent reason other than it not being financially lucrative for graduates (supposedly).

I don't know the details here but a department merger can actually be a very good thing for its faculty. The closing of a department is one of the few ways that tenured faculty can lose their jobs (see such examples as https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/1ccesqi/department_eliminated_and_faculty_laid_off/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/1fr0g9o/department_might_close_not_sure_what_i_should_do/)

Merging smaller departments together makes it much less likely that a department would or could be closed in the future. Put another way, if you merge a bunch of language departments together then the tenure protections for those faculty are actually better than before when they were in little departments.

[u/DrJupeman → u/[deleted]]

I know a lot of people who love the current Chancellor. Funny how that works.

[u/paisleypumpkins → u/TravelinJack2224]

This is not how the organization works. The “professional-only” schools along with Blair, A&S, Engineering, and Peabody are all Vanderbilt University. They are all under the purview of the chancellor and provost. Each school/college, either solely graduate/professional degree granting or undergraduate/graduate/and professional degree granting, have their own deans and budget. This isn’t to say the receivership isn’t alarming but it’s the university taking away the colleges autonomy, essentially like putting the college or school in a conservatorship and saying they no longer trust them to take their own decisions.

[u/mrmses → u/TravelinJack2224]

No, you don’t have it right. Vanderbilt University is all ten colleges- both undergrad, grad, nursing, blair, owen, law, divinity.

Divinity is just one of the ten colleges, all of which are under purview of the Provost- and she reports to the Chancellor.

Divinity has been hemorrhaging money for years, and they staunched it with the chaplain program, but maybe not enough.

Maybe Dierm has some kind of political vendetta against Div, but I bet a huge part of it is just straight finances.

Finally, with the great divorce from VUMC, there has been about a ten year separation of finances from the silos of each college, and some time around 2020 I think the last college was no longer fully autonomous on their own finances. Divinity is not alone in this.

[u/wil_dogg]

Peabody PhD here and apparently the Teaching and Learning Dept has been in receivership as well. Peabody is a top 5 School of Education and competed with Stanford, Columbia, Wisconsin, and Chicago.

Divinity has historically been a strong school and an advanced divinity degree from a school like Vanderbilt or Duke or Yale is a smart track toward a six figure salary and a great retirement pension. It will take years to get to six figures but divinity students are in that track for the long haul and can move lateral to secular leadership jobs as well.

My hunch is that this is a situation where applicants have been scarce, offering more graduate tuition waivers is not getting the program to a positive net tuition revenue, and there will be cost cutting and refocusing before the deans of these two programs get any extra funding.

[u/TravelinJack2224 → u/wil_dogg]

I certainly hear that! But the financials of, at least VDS, (but I would imagine Peabody too?) are coming out and the numbers aren’t in line with them being in any kind of financial troubles. That’s where I don’t understand and it seems targeted.

Maybe even targeted to all higher education and who are producing teachers..

But I’m also extremely jaded and don’t trust anyone at this point so very aware I could be looking too much into it!