Petition to President Machen to Keep Philosophy's Ph.D. Program 

7:06 pm PST, Nov 4, Theresa M Kelly, South Carolina

4:11 pm PST, Nov 4, Anna Marie Maly, Texas
If you cannot afford to continue this program on the school campus, why don't you consider offering it online? This is the wave of the future. I will be the first to enroll.

10:42 am PDT, Oct 4, Orlando Torres, Florida
Philosophy is the mother of all our current sciences and engineering you value so much. It is the beginning of Western Civilization as we know it.

11:48 am PDT, Sep 19, Simos Tarabatzis, Greece

9:26 am PDT, Sep 18, Simon Makwinja, Malawi
If Philosophy Phd is taken out of curriculum, then the University's component of Liberal Arts has no backbone. Actually, the whole world needs to understand that philosophy is indispensable.

1:10 am PDT, Sep 14, Natalie Ryan Wyatt, North Carolina
To whom it may concern, As a recent graduate from Rollins College, with a B.A. in Philosophy (2004), I am saddened by UF's alleged choice to ax their philosophy Ph.D. program. During my year off in between college and graduate school I have been looking closely at each philosophy program present in Florida. Sufficed to say, UF's was at the top of my list. I just recently decided that I wanted to be a gator when I stumbled upon an article telling of the cuts at UF. I think that the decision should be reconsidered, as philosophy equips people with necessary tools that more of society should have in these troubled times. I call them troubled times because it feels, to many, as though humanity is losing touch with itself and people are becoming more and more confused as to why the things that are happening seem so negative. Oftentimes it seems to me that people don't know how to ask the right questions and are thus left in the dark wandering. Philosophy is the light; philosophy is what equips humanity with the ability to ask the right questions and the drive to want to ask those questions. The more people that can offer genuinely good programs, which I have been told that UF had, the more that light can touch everyone. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Natalie Ryan Wyatt

12:19 pm PDT, Sep 10, Name not displayed, California

9:42 am PDT, Aug 30, Daniel DeNicola, Pennsylvania
I urge President Machen to rethink this idea. How can UF seek to be included among the prominent comprehensive research institutions of this country and eliminate doctoral training in philosophy? This has the potential to damage the reputation of UF, not only among scholars and researchers here and abroad, but among prospective candidates for graduate study in many related fields.

12:44 pm PDT, Aug 8, Liz Femiano, Florida
Please reconsider.

9:18 am PDT, Aug 5, Andi Alnwick, New York

10:17 pm PDT, Jul 30, Gamze Yorgancioglu, Turkey

2:51 pm PDT, Jul 24, Nicholas Huggins, Florida
As an undergraduate at the University of Florida I greatly appreciated the philosophy courses I took, which were taught by PhD students.

8:29 pm PDT, Jul 22, Tyler Stowers, California

4:30 pm PDT, Jul 22, David Reese, Florida
As a graduate of UF (2000) about to begin PhD study, I am outraged to hear about the cancelling of UF's Philosophy PhD program. Philosophy forms the core of the University environment and is the discipline from which all other fields arose. The cessation of the program will cause a trickle-down effect throughout the university and will deeply tarnish the reputation of the flagship school of the state of Florida. More importantly, the termination will send a message to the students, and society at large, that intellectual pursuits and the quest for knowledge are not to be valued; the antithesis to the mission of the academy.

10:02 pm PDT, Jul 16, Rebecca Lopez, California

11:59 am PDT, Jul 8, Azzia Zur, California
Philosophy is a fascinating field, and there are hundreds of thousands of undergrads pursuing BAs in Philosophy. We need PhDs to teach future generations! Please keep the PhD program. This is a time when we especially need thinkers!!

5:32 pm PDT, Jul 7, Jason Denholm, New Mexico

4:28 pm PDT, Jul 3, Dean Algeo, Florida

11:36 am PDT, Jul 1, Gregory Majercik, North Carolina
Downsizing academic departments to meet institutional budgets is throwing away the raison d'etre for the very existence of the instituton, those who teach.

1:59 pm PDT, Jun 27, Daniel Kolde, Missouri

3:10 am PDT, Jun 27, Casey Woodling, Madagascar

3:51 pm PDT, Jun 19, Laura Davis, Florida
Keep Philosophy!!

8:25 am PDT, Jun 17, Jeremy Paster, Florida
1660, sounds like this decision has impacted many. Please reconsider.

11:02 am PDT, Jun 15, Charles Grapski, Florida
Bernie, First, I know you will DELETE this email (unlawfully) [we'll get back to that - those days will soon be over - and it is a disgrace for a person in your position to so blatantly violate the law.] I also know that you really could care less about petitions such as this. [One reason the law REQUIRES that such emails be KEPT as public records. Because WE have a right to know what is being communicated TO YOU and what you IGNORE.] But please explain how you can consider an institution of higher education (and I know you were chosen not because of your intellectual or academic qualifications - but for "business" purposes. One of the reasons UF is dying (with most of the rest of American education) that treats PHILOSOPHY (the center, the foundation) as a dispensable program. And how you could consider an undergraduate program in the field WITHOUT a graduate program. Is it just to fill thousand student lecture halls to hear non-substantive course lectures and take bubble sheet exams - just to "jump through a hoop" to get a piece of paper at the end that really indicates next to nothing about WHAT you have "learned" let alone now "understand." Philosophy has always been a first on the chopping block. After all - who needs (who wants) critical thinking. BUILD and DEVELOP this program. Do not destroy it. (As you are about to destroy this email).

12:54 pm PDT, Jun 14, Name not displayed, California
I know the UF program, having taught at UNF for several years and having participated in the Florida Philosophical Association conferences over the years. As a member of that organization and as a college professor with over a decade experience teaching graduates and undergraduates in philosophy and religion, I know how important philosophical questioning and, in particular, the critical thinking and analytical skills honed by philosophy are in our very anti-philosophical culture. Such skills lie at the bedrock of a free society; we need more of them, not less. I would ask you to reconsider cancelling a program such as this.

9:51 am PDT, Jun 13, Lee Ann Higginbotham, Missouri
Philosophy involves thinking which is what we need more of in our universities rather than less. Great thinkers such as graduates of the PhD program at UF help us see the big picture and not focus on small minded views of our life and the world we live in. While attending UF, I was impressed with the variety or programs offered and I knew that I was attending a nationally recognized university.

7:48 am PDT, Jun 13, Paul Adams, Illinois

12:54 pm PDT, Jun 12, Mark Adams, Florida
As a philosophy major, I am looking for graduate programs to attend. The discontinuation of the Doctoral program at UF would be a major disappointment in that regard. Philosophy is the conerstone of higher education and should be protected and promoted at all costs.

3:28 pm PDT, Jun 11, Jennifer Rusak, Florida

7:55 am PDT, Jun 11, Jane Love, South Carolina

8:22 pm PDT, Jun 9, Todd Bates, Florida
Please reconsider closure of the University of Florida's Ph.D program in philosophy. It is difficult to imagine how an institution with UF's national stature can avoid damaging its academic reputation while cutting a program in a field like philosophy with such a long tradition of being essential to the arts, sciences, and humanities. It is equally difficult to see how such damage can be restrained from affecting degree work in other disciplines. Indeed, as no university seeking a good national reputation can long persist without a Ph.D program in philosophy, the work of cutting will only have to be undone in the future, at additional cost and effort--what is to be gained in the long term? It is difficult to imagine any short-term marginal savings to be gained by this move could not have been gained elsewhere without such detrimental effect. Please do the right thing, and reconsider.

2:15 pm PDT, Jun 9, Vanessa Wood, Florida