Adrian College planned to terminate history, philosophy, religion and more -- until graduates organized to stop it. Faculty members still don't understand why the programs were threatened. Eleven humanities professors at Adrian College in Michigan recently began their terminal year there, or so they thought. Then the administration rescinded their previously delivered pink slips and promised to find other ways to balance its budget. What changed Adrian’s mind? Hint: It wasn’t the faculty, which, still fuming about the threatened cuts and other issues, has since voted no confidence in Adrian’s president and dean of academic affairs. Instead, it was alumni who persuaded Adrian to reverse the cuts -- and not all of the alumni were big names.
