The Macalester website boasts a link to the recent Newsweek article that features Macalester as one of the nation’s twelve hottest schools. Macalester is summarized in two concise paragraphs, which commend our concern with global issues and the emphasis placed on internationalism in our diverse academic program. In particular, the department of Geography is highlighted as being a unique part of the curriculum, which reflects the strengths of Macalester’s global focus.

Yet returning to the home page and clicking on the President’s Planning Portfolio reveals plans to dissolve the very department that helped Macalester place so high in the undergraduate hierarchy.

In its Final Report, the Task Force on Academic Quality and Structure makes several recommendations to ensure that a broad understanding of the liberal arts, the ongoing pursuit of internationalism, multiculturalism, and a commitment to society are emphasized in Macalester’s academic program. Among these suggestions is a proposal to dissolve the Geography department which, according to the Final Report, has a “tenuous status within the core liberal arts,” and should distribute its faculty among various departments, mainly Urban Studies.

This is a ridiculous suggestion, based on arbitrary methods and contradictory objectives. Macalester’s Geography department is one of the most well known departments within the discipline. Not only is the department one of the strongest (and perhaps hottest?) programs at Macalester, it also clearly embodies the ideals of Macalester’s mission statement, the concept of liberal arts, and the very objectives that the Task Force is attempting to protect.

Through a “comparative analysis,” the Task Force compared Macalester to 16 of the 40 colleges we consider in our league, including Amherst, Carleton, Grinnell, Reed, and Williams. Apparently, by simply analyzing the number of these colleges offering specific majors, the Task Force was able to distinguish which majors are “fundamental to the mission of a preeminent liberal arts college.” Of the 17 colleges, Macalester was the only one to offer a Geography major and because “it would be detrimental to our admissions to deviate greatly from the majors offered at these colleges,” we must eliminate Geography, the great outlier in academia. But, Macalester, wouldn’t it be detrimental to deviate ourselves right out of our oh-so-sacred spot in the top twelve? The Task Force recommends that the currently interdisciplinary Urban Studies program be given full departmental status based on the fact that it is “relatively unique.” Does the fact that there are two Urban Studies departments among the 17 colleges make it a safer deviation than a lone Geography department?

The Urban Studies program is strong and I will not debate the suggestion that it be transformed into a full-fledged department; however, many problems would stem from an attempt to absorb a geography program into an Urban Studies major.

Geography is not Urban Studies and merging and tailoring the curriculum for a specifically Urban Studies focus would severely limit the scope of the program. Geography is not a standard set of classes covering trivial pursuit card information, but a method of exploring and examining the world. The field is comprised of many areas of study, including political geography, economic development, demographics, cultural landscapes, and human-environmental interactions.

Internationalism and multiculturalism are ingrained in the geography program through the nature of the subject, a diverse array of course offerings, and student and faculty interest. The geography department is structured to offer classes that cover an incredible sphere—course ranges from wide and applicable overviews to detailed regional case studies. This semester, with the addition of two new faculty members, faculty fieldwork and on-site experience stretch across almost every continent, including West Africa and Central Asia. There is also a very strong local component to our program, dedicated to familiarizing students with the Twin Cities metro area and local development issues. The breadth of the program exposes students to a variety of topics, allowing them to develop their own focus within the department. This specialization results in a diverse range of interests within the department that reinforces the international and multicultural aspects of the program. Service to society is inherent in this curriculum as many of the classes, particularly GIS courses, are devoted to researching, producing and analyzing data for the community.

As for the department’s “tenuous status in the core liberal arts,” I think the fact that the Task Force had trouble deciding whether to move our new tenure track professor, William Moseley, to Environmental or International Studies proves that Geography does play a key role in the liberal arts. Geography provides links between disciplines and a contextual view of issues. Any student exposed to geographical interpretation will forever examine issues within the context of who, why, and where.

To me, it is not clear that Geography is detrimental to Macalester’s scholarly objectives and worldly missions. Geography is an essential part of the Macalester curriculum and there is no warrant for its destruction.