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A few months ago, I caught a story on a threat of closure to the Phil department at Middle Tennessee. The tennessean just published an update. The part on the Phil department is on page 3, and excerpted here:

MTSU moves on mandated cuts | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Meanwhile, the Department of Philosophy is being required to outline a plan to significantly increase its number of majors, or face elimination of the major over a three- or four-year period or merger with another department.

"The recommendation for the elimination of the Department of Philosophy will be supported if a viable plan for increasing the number of majors has not been approved by the interim provost and president by Sept. 30,...

...The plan submitted to increase the number of majors includes looking into instituting a combined five-year master of arts and three-year bachelor of arts degree. Another strategy is to increase community outreach to stimulate and moderate interfaith dialogue.

The third strategy involves a comprehensive set of recruiting and retention strategies, said McDaniel.

"Retention is not a big problem because our (philosophy) students have scored higher on exit exams than majors in other departments," he said.

The Philosophy Department also hopes to develop outreach partnerships with at least 10 area high schools to increase freshmen majors in philosophy and to have faculty counsel students seeking minors in philosophy to take a double major in the subject. Designing and delivering Internet-available publicity on advanced courses in philosophy, producing department video brochures, and sponsoring annual regional undergraduate philosophy conferences are also suggested in the plan. Finally, the department hopes to make the Logic and Critical Thinking general education course more interesting and applicable so that more students will at least consider pursuing philosophy as a major.

UPDATE: Interview with the president, posted 6/10/09: McPhee doesn't rule out cutting philosophy - News