With the closing of the Institute of Research in Cognitive Science, CogSci majors express concern

After 26 years, the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science is closing, though administrators say the cognitive science major will not be affected.

The IRCS, founded in 1990, is an interdisciplinary research institution studying human behavior and cognition. For the last five years, it has also been the home of the cognitive science major.

While the closing of the IRCS had been floated as a possibility for several years, it only became a serious topic of discussion this past year as the Neural and Behavioral Sciences Building neared completion.

“Much of the cognitive science part of [the IRCS] is moving across campus,” IRCS Director David Brainard said. “That provides a moment to rethink the institution that supports cognitive science ... and to take a look at both the landscape at Penn and the landscape in the field of cognitive science nationwide.”

Last year, the School of Arts and Sciences announced as part of its Strategic Plan the new “Mapping the Mind” initiative, which hopes to research the way the human mind works. The School of Engineering and Applied Science is also starting to think about new approaches to cognition and its relationship to information science.

Because of the new plans, “it made sense to have the support for cognitive science coming in new forms,” Brainard said. “And given that you’re going to put new things into place, you’re going to have to make way for them by closing old things.”

Following the decision to close down the IRCS, Brainard sent out an email to the IRCS mailing list announcing that the IRCS would close on June 30 — an email that surprised and alarmed some students.

Several students reached out to Charles Yang, director of the cognitive science major, with questions.

“I think [their concern] was basically that the research institute has been the home of the major, and how do you have a major without a home?” Yang said.

“Some of you have already expressed concerns to me about the future of the major,” he wrote in a March 25 email sent to the undergraduate cognitive science mailing list. He went on to discuss the Mapping the Mind project, mentioning that it “may become the new home for the major, although the details are not yet clear.”

“I understand, and share, your anxiety over the uncertainties,” it read.

For College sophomore Jonnell Burke, who is a cognitive science major, the email — which was the first she had heard about the closing of the IRCS — did little to reduce her confusion.

“I actually found out through [the] email,” Burke said. “Apparently a lot of people had been asking questions and [the IRCS] wanted to I guess assuage us, but they didn’t really say anything there, just ‘we’re still figuring it out,’ basically.”

Burke, who has already declared her major, said she was concerned about what ramifications the closing of the IRCS might have on her own studies.

“Will this hurt me, or, will this hurt people after me?” she said. “That’s one of my main concerns.”

Burke said she felt like the students had largely been left out of the loop. “We haven’t heard anything, and we don’t know why it’s happening,” she said. “If I could get an explanation, I’d be better equipped to make my next move.”

The closing of the IRCS also came as a surprise to College junior Alison Xu, another cognitive science major.

“I just assumed that ... they were just moving over to the new building,” Xu said. “I’m not really sure why it’s closing, because cog sci is a budding field — to me, it seems like it should be only getting bigger and bigger.”

But Brainard and Yang both emphasized that SAS is still heavily invested in the field of cognitive science and that the closing of the IRCS should not hurt current or potential majors.

“I want to make this absolutely clear: the University and the School of Arts and Sciences are completely behind the major,” Yang said. “I expect the major to be fully supported, no matter what this new structure is going to be or where it’s going to be.”

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