I did not look forward to my visit to Utah Valley University in the fall of 2023. Facing the start of a new quarter of teaching, I felt that the trip would probably bring me little exhilaration. Bad news about cuts to the humanities kept rolling in from all sides, most recently from West Virginia University, which has cut more than 30 degree programs entirely, most in the humanities and liberal arts. I had been invited to lecture to students in the philosophy course that is required of all undergraduates at this huge (more than 43,000 students), open-enrollment public university. Although I had confidence in the skill and good judgment of Michael Shaw, the professor who had invited me, I had to wonder how likely it was that a public university in our benighted time would continue to support such a vast and ambitious undertaking at a level to make it really work.