The Philosophy department at Pomona College, whose enrollment per faculty member has been the highest of any department for about a decade, is anticipating new hires and the departure or cutback of personnel. Both the staff and curriculum of the department is expected to be in flux until at least the beginning of the 2001-2002 academic year.

The most immediate loss is of Associate Professor Hilary Bok, who is going to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Bok, who will begin at Johns Hopkins in the fall after spending her last semester here on leave, was made, in her words, "an offer I couldn’t refuse."

The department faces several obstacles in addition to filling Bok’s shoes. Professor Fred Sontag had open-heart surgery last week, and though he is expected to recover fully, his workload has been reduced by half as part of the beginning of his retirement.

Jay Atlas, who teaches in logic, epistemology and language has also had his attention drawn from the philosophy department. He will become a professor of philosophy in linguistics next year, dividing his time equally between the Philosophy and recently created Linguistics departments.

Philosophy has had more than its share of guest professors, including Susan Castagnetto, chair of the five college Women’s Studies program, Randal Parker, on the faculty at Glendale Community College, and Eric Wing, a former Pomona student currently at work on his PhD at UCLA.

Acting Chair of the Philosophy Department Paul Hurley recognizes the growing gaps on the top floor of Pearson Hall. "It’s important to find someone who can teach the History of Modern [one of Bok’s classes], and the epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of science [Atlas and Sontag ]," said Hurley, "but we’d like to find someone who can meet other areas, like political philosophy, ethics, feminism, Asian philosophy, philosophy of psychology, artificial intelligence, and philosophy of biology. There is definite student interest."

The interest has come from outside parties as well. The department underwent an outside review process last year, which strongly recommended the hiring of at least one additional professor to fill some of those needs. In addition, the reviewers suggested adding more vertical structure to the department to provide greater separation between introductory courses and advanced seminars.

"The curriculum is stuck in a position which is not allowing us to provide quality classroom experience for majors. We’re going to be making some alterations," said Hurley.

One of those changes could be the division of the philosophy curriculum into three tiers. Advancement to the next tier would be dependent on completing the corresponding prerequisites. Hurley says this will both increase the number of students in lower level classes and offer a more advanced atmosphere for the upper-level seminars.

Accomplishing these goals will only be possible by hiring new staff, said Hurley. The department intends to take on an associate professor to fill the void left by Sontag's lessening workload this spring. By the end of next year, a search for a permanent full professor to fill the void left by Bok will be underway.

Bok has been named to a tenured, endowed chair in bio-ethics at Johns Hopkins. There, she will do research and teach two courses a year (compared to her five at Pomona ) and run the bioethics certificate program, a minor degree that the University offers.

Though she has never worked in bio-ethics before (her field being 'freedom of the will') she says she finds it "very exciting," and looks forward to working at what she calls one of the best schools of public health in the world.

According to Hurley, "It’s extremely unusual, but not unheard of, for an associate professor to be named to an endowed chair. It’s a testimony to the extraordinary research she has done."

Bok’s first book was published by Princeton University in and is titled Freedom and Responsibility. "It’s one of the most important contributions to the debate in the last decade," said Hurley. "She takes a certain line of inquiry people thought had been exhausted… to explain how it is that one can endorse freedom and determinism [the view that all actions, willed or not, are merely consequences of previous actions] without weakening the notion of freedom for the individual."

Bok describes working on the book, which she wrote on and off for 12 years, as "hard but fun." She said she focused on finishing it, and did not anticipate its success, which was large by philosophy standards and included a write-up in the Times Literary Supplement.

Bok has been at Pomona since 1991, after completing her PhD at Harvard. "Pomona has been a very good place to work," said Bok, "I will miss the students here and some of my colleagues."

Commenting on Bok's skills, Hurley said, "There is nobody else that someone should work with if they want to be a philosopher. When it comes to her methods, engaging a text, and defending an argument, there’s no one even close." Though known for her challenging grading and lectures, "no one puts more detailed comments on student papers than [Bok]," Hurley said.