Dear Middlesex University Governors and Management:

I emailed you a few weeks ago to express my utter bafflement at the decision to close your internationally renowned philosophy department.   You have failed so far to provide a considered rationale for this decision.    The explanation that this was a ‘purely financial decision’ won’t wash after it has been shown to be fictitious by several writers in the national press.

And now we are informed that Professors Hallward and Osborne, as well as a number of students, have been suspended for their role in the protests against this decision.   I can only conclude that this is the response of a vindictive and nervous management, digging an even bigger hole for itself to compound a flawed initial decision.

No administration of a reputable American university would dream of closing-down an academic department that is the most highly ranked department on campus and is world-renowned to boot–  in such a university a decision of this kind would be regarded as a guaranteed way to cut short the careers of the administrators involved!   You have now made two disastrous decisions, and I hope it is not too late to rescind them.

Yours sincerely,

Kenneth Surin, PhD
*****
Professor of Literature and Professor of Religion and Critical Theory
Chairman, Program in Literature
Campus Box 90670
Duke University
Durham NC 27708  USA