When is a university not a university?
Some readers may by now have heard about what is happening at the University of St. Thomas [UST] in Houston, where the university president’s actions have put the philosophy faculty in fear for their jobs and for the survival of their program. Details are available at Daily Nous (with a follow-up here) and at Inside Higher Ed. Philosophers at the University of Notre Dame have issued a statement on the controversy. John Hittinger at the University of St. Thomas has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a legal defense.
I have nothing to state but the obvious: A university without a philosophy program is not a true university. A Catholic university without a philosophy program is not a truly Catholic university. A university named after St. Thomas Aquinas without a philosophy program is too stupid for words. And if you really need all this explained to you, then you have no business running a university.
U. of St. Thomas, Houston, is known for its
Center for Thomistic Studies (CTS).
Call me cynical, but perhaps
this has something to do with it. Thomism—even the
Novus Ordo,
Personalist-friendly flavor of it taught at UST—is a lethal enemy of the prevailing Liberal, relativist, egalitarian "thinking" today.