[The Montana Professor 22.1, Fall 2011 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]
Richard Walton
Philosophy (Emeritus)
UM-Missoula
The Editorial Board of The Montana Professor is very pleased to present the inaugural issue of the journal under the editorship of Philip Gaines, English, Montana State University-Bozeman. The Board wishes to announce here Professor Gaines' election as Editor of the Journal and President of the Board of Directors of The Montana Professor, Inc. We are delighted to have Professor Gaines assume this leadership role and are confident that the journal will prosper under his direction. I know that our readers will welcome him and offer him the support that previous Editors have enjoyed.
[Note: Linda Gillison and Richard Walton—along with Book Review Editor Marvin Lansverk—had the current issue well under way before I took over as Editor and continued to work with me in finalizing it well beyond the call of their editorial duty. I consider this installment to be the final project of these hard-working and dedicated colleagues. I will have more to say about them in the next issue...—Philip Gaines]
We open this issue with a delightful article by Danielle Jones of UM-Western's English Department, "Teaching Tolstoy in a Cow Town." Professor Jones grew up on a ranch near Dillon and understands well the way of life that shapes the spirit of the majority of students she sees in her classroom. Most remarkably, however, she went off to college, developed a love of Russian literature, language, and culture, and spent several years in Russia. In her article she describes in an insightful and entertaining way the challenges of conveying the beauty and significance of that literature and culture to her "cow town" students.
Ryan Tolleson Knee and Janet Finn of UM-Missoula's School of Social Work open a series of articles on the present state of the disciplines represented in the MUS. The previous editorial staff solicited this article because of the prominence to which social work has risen in the country's national life in the past thirty or so years and the controversies the academic discipline has aroused. Knee and Finn's article focuses on social work's history, with special reference to Montana, and on the social work program at what is now UM-Missoula. It does not shrink from addressing the most notable criticism that the discipline has received. We think the authors set an admirable standard for future contributions in this series, contributions which are hereby invited.
Ken Egan, Executive Director, Humanities Montana (formerly The Montana Committee for the Humanities), provides a succinct description and defense of the role of the humanities in contemporary life. The humanities disciplines, too, have been the object of considerable criticism in recent years. Some of that disdain has been the consequence of the increasing vocationalism that has characterized American higher education since WWII, and is evident in educational policy promulgated by governing boards, like our Regents, and spurred on by captains of industry and government. Other criticisms have taken as the target what the critics see as insubstantial faddish theories and politicizing. Egan takes on both sorts of critics at once.
Finally, in our articles section, three members of Montana Tech of UM's faculty of Business present an account of an overhaul of their capstone course. Contrary to the assumptions of most outside the Montana higher education community, the faculties of the many disciplines of the MUS are constantly engaged in self-criticism in an effort to improve our programs. This account may serve to assist others in modifying comparable courses.
Our book review section is particularly rich in this issue of the journal, covering four substantial books, all of importance to the community the journal serves. Linda and Marsha Frey, two distinguished historians, review Daniel Hannan's The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America, a book that has been given prominent notice in several national periodicals. The Freys, both with extensive knowledge and experience of contemporary Europe, favor us with an especially insightful review.
Celia Schahczenski, whose article on the FCC's "net neutrality" policy appeared in the spring issue, reviews Evgeny Morozov's The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, a book which punches rather severe holes in our comforting belief that the internet in general, and social networks in particular, inevitably promote the democratic sort of social order which most of us believe justice requires.
Our review section concludes with consideration of two books on explicitly academic subjects, both of which, too, have gained considerable national attention. Each book is sharply critical of our efforts to produce educated young men and women. The first, reviewed by Susanne Monahan, reports and develops the results of a much ballyhooed study purporting to show that American college students learn very little in the first two years of the college experience. The second book, reviewed by Board member and frequent contributor to these pages, Henry Gonshak, is a critique of the quality of American higher education, presented as an exposé. The anonymous author, an adjunct freshman writing instructor at an unnamed institution, argues that a substantial percentage of his students are, in fact, simply unteachable, from which he means to imply that that is the case with American college students in general. In his usual admirable fashion, Gonshak deals with this contention vividly, concisely, and fruitfully.
As in the spring issue, we close with "The Last Word," this time an eloquent farewell from our Editor for the last four years, Linda Gillison. Linda has been an excellent Editor even while working under the burden of chairing a large and diverse academic department. Her own contributions to the journal's contents have been stellar. We all owe her our gratitude.
In 2002 I very reluctantly accepted election as Editor of The Montana Professor upon the retirement of founding Editor and Publisher, George Madden. The journal was then in a critical state, its funding, which had from the journals inception come from the Montana Federation of Teachers, having been withdrawn as a consequence of the merger of the MFT and the MEA and the involvement of two of the Editorial Board's members in the sponsorship of a conference on charter schools. I rather thought that the chances of my having actually to produce an issue of the journal were rather slim. However, the Board completed the process George Madden had begun of establishing the journal as the product of a non-profit Montana corporation, and funding was secured on a year-to-year basis. I remained Editor until my appointment as Chair of the Philosophy Department at UM-Missoula in 2006. Since that time I have provided support for the Editor as requested, including serving as acting co-editor for the past two years. I now relinquish my editorial responsibilities entirely to Philip Gaines, and follow my retirement from the UM faculty in 2008 with a retirement from The Montana Professor.
Whether my contributions to the life of this journal have been of value to achieving its worthy purposes I leave entirely to others to judge. For my part I will only say that I have found the work, demanding as it has been, very rewarding and, for the most part, quite enjoyable. It has been a privilege to engage with the other members of the Board in producing each issue of The Montana Professor, and to work with the many authors represented in the issues I have edited. The MUS is fortunate, indeed, to have so many creative, able, and dedicated members of its faculties. May they and this journal continue to flourish.
[The Montana Professor 22.1, Fall 2011 <http://mtprof.msun.edu>]