Decimating mathematics education (Score 1)

On October 1st, George M. Phillip, the president of the New York State University at Albany, announced that the French, Russian, Italian, Classics and Theater departments were to be eliminated by 2012.

Humanities and social science programs in the UK face an 80% reduction in government funds for research and teaching. The reduction is interpreted as attempt to steer the UK educational system toward a for-profit model--a move that will force many institutions to close and that will transform all but the elite universities into technical schools.

Could this sustained assault on the public education system and the university itself be a misapplication of mathematics? Now that the development of mathematical methods with the potential to raise the level of political and economic discourse above ideological debate appears within reach, the public education system is faced with massive cutbacks on a global scale. The institution of tenure must defend itself against the adventitious imposition of market based-criteria of faculty productivity. Administrators relentlessly expanding their domain of responsibility and resentful of their support role fantasize "upstreaming" faculty research to themselves. Adherents of the "build to strength" philosophy wreak havoc on their institutions by eliminating departments deemed to be under-performing--typically the humanities and social sciences--as this is the most expedient way to terminate tenured faculty.

But now it appears that mathematics is next.