SUNY-Albany

There are moments when one writes something that just speaks to everybody’s heart.

It’s a very complex task to think of moments like that: Why do they exist? What happens when something that someone wrote makes people wish that they themselves had written that text? How is it possible that a single person captures in his or her words a collective drive? Is it truly possible to think in terms of a “collective” voice?

Of course, I have no answers to these questions. Or else, the best answer is always a text.

Weeks ago the President of SUNY-Albany announced that he was abolishing a series of departments in his university. I just came across this text by Gregory Petsko, a professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, and a popular science writer, who wrote an open letter to the President, confronting his cost-cutting arguments and arguing in favor of the Humanities. I can’t think of a better answer to my own questions: