Humanities at fall: new cancellations of departments and programs. From the article:
The cuts [at Illinois Wesleyan University] are the result of a controversial curriculum review that began last year, pitting administrators trying to revamp offerings for career-oriented students and balance the budget against defenders of the humanities, including professors and alumni, who worry IWU will lose its identity as a bastion for liberal arts. Current students working toward degrees in affected programs will be able to complete them.
“People sometimes disregard or dismiss terms like humanities and liberal arts. They don’t understand what that does to their careers,” [Professor Scott] Sheridan said, explaining that skills such as critical thinking and communication are marketable. “We have an educational model in the United States that sometimes privileges the professional degree tracks.”
After Sheridan, a tenured professor, received notice that his position will be terminated in
The situation reflects the broader struggle in U.S. higher education to sustain interest in humanities courses. In the last decade, dozens of colleges that once operated as liberal arts schools have closed, merged with other institutions or shifted their focus to preprofessional programs, research shows. And fewer students are choosing to major in disciplines such as history or philosophy, instead steering their tuition dollars toward career and technical training.
On paper, IWU President Georgia Nugent might seem like an ally for worried professors. Before joining IWU last year, Nugent taught classics at Princeton and Brown universities and served as president of Kenyon College, a small school in Ohio that boasts its “long-standing literary tradition.” As a senior fellow at Council of Independent Colleges, Nugent also helped spearhead a campaign promoting the benefits of a liberal arts education.
But while Nugent described herself in a Tribune interview as a “huge believer in liberal arts,” she said that colleges must evolve to best serve students and their changing desires….
Are humanities courses doomed?
Academics have long bemoaned the decline of the humanities on America’s college campuses, and the data suggests they have cause for concern.
The number of undergraduate students earning degrees in the humanities dropped sharply between 2012 and 2015, according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Compared with fields such as medicine and engineering, the overall share of undergrads earning humanities degrees had fallen for 10 consecutive years, sinking below 12% in 2015, the most recent year for which cumulative data was available.
In a May report, the academy found that at least 6 million students were enrolled in humanities courses in 2017, but many liberal arts disciplines continue to see substantial declines. Fewer undergraduate degrees were awarded in English, history and philosophy in 2017 than five years prior, the report says.
Not all scholars are willing to accept the downward trajectory. Eric Boynton, provost and dean of Beloit College in Wisconsin, said schools should be assessing their staffing levels to adapt, creating interdisciplinary opportunities and trying to show students that liberal arts courses are worthwhile no matter what career path they are pursuing.
For other posts on university humanities, see here.
h/t Reuben Margoliash
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