Brian Ferguson sent me this from the local newspaper:
Following a marathon meeting, the University's Senate Tuesday night voted to ratify an earlier decision made by its Board of Undergraduate Studies (BUGS) to cancel the women's studies and five other majors and two degree programs.
Probably not a bad move for several reasons. As Sue said about the situation in an e-mail,
I have observed “sociology creep” in secondary schools, to the point where Society Challenge and Change (junior sociology), history, geography, physical education (health), all had virtually the same curriculum. That curriculum usually ended up as a version of women’s studies issues and poverty issues, all of which could be explained by an oppressive and discriminatory male dominated society. I was one of the hold outs in the study of English who refused to replace Shakespeare with a “socially relevant” novel. Education has been reduced to brainwashing.
When I mentioned to Professor Ferguson that it must have taken a lot of "nerve" to scrap the women's studies programme, he responded
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Perhaps that is how others at UWO feel about what they are doing and have done to the economics department here.