“Eliminating the humanities and other ‘unprofitable’ fields does more harm than good”—Willard Dix

“On its website, the University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point still has these statements: At UW-Stevens Point, you will enter a broad-based general education program. Our faculty will guide you toward global citizenship. They will challenge you to see the world from others’ perspectives.

“Students are challenged to think globally and recognize their responsibility toward civic engagement and environmental sustainability. This critical foundation of our university degree allows students to build toward more advanced and specialized work in every major, minor and certificate program. Educational professionals and business leaders from all across the nation recognize the value of this type of broad-based education. It allows for intellectual flexibility and personal and professional growth.

“These guiding principles can be found in one form or another on many colleges' websites, espousing not only a widely-based education but also a path toward "flexibility" in one's eventual career.

“That was then, though this is now:

“To create programs that meet the evolving needs of students, UW-Stevens Point proposes shifting resources from programs where fewer students are enrolled. Discontinuing the following programs is recommended:

American Studies

Art - Graphic Design will continue as a distinct major

English - English for teacher certification will continue

French

Geography

Geo-science

German

History - Social Science for teacher certification will continue

Music Literature

Philosophy

Political Science

Sociology -- Social Work major will continue

Spanish

“In effect, UW-SP is cutting the heart out of its educational mission in order to ‘prepare for the future.’ (Note that English, history and sociology will continue only as transactional majors.) The major reasons for this shift, according to the university, are a $4.5M deficit, a decline in enrollment and lower tuition revenues. Given the roiling state of Wisconsin's higher education system under its current government, these aren't negligible reasons. However, they also embody an attitude toward higher education that has been infecting higher education more generally over the last decade or so: If it doesn't pay, it doesn't stay.

“While the university's chancellor, Bernie Patterson, says ‘we remain committed to ensuring every student who graduates from UW-Stevens Point is thoroughly grounded in the liberal arts, as well as prepared for a successful career path,’ it's notable that the proposed replacements for the majors on the block include:

Chemical Engineering

Computer Information Systems

Conservation Law Enforcement

Finance

Fire Science

Graphic Design

Management

Marketing

Aquaculture/Aquaponics

Captive Wildlife

Ecosystem Design and Remediation

Environmental Engineering

Geographic Information Science

Master of Business Administration

Master of Natural Resources

Doctor of Physical Therapy

“It seems clear that the university, far from continuing to thoroughly ground its students in the liberal arts as part of their educations, is converting itself into a trade school, relying on market forces to determine its programs and jettisoning anything that doesn't offer a clear path toward a career.

“In a recent article in Inside Higher Education, Mary Bowman, a professor of English and chair of the council’s General Education Committee, said, ‘no formally constituted committee or working group was involved in producing the plan released Monday, and to what degree any faculty recommendations were incorporated is unclear.

“Economics and enrollment drops have motivated other institutions similarly. The chancellor of Southern Illinois University--Carbondale proposed last year that all departments be eliminated in favor of a more amorphous structure. As reported in Inside Higher Education: ‘...in the case of proposed School of Humanities within the proposed College of Liberal and Performing Arts, for example, there would still be programs, courses and majors in history, English, philosophy, philosophy and languages, cultures and international studies. But there would no longer be a departmental structure to support them.’

“As of this writing, it appears that the subjects themselves haven't been eliminated, but it's hard not to wonder how each field functions without a ‘departmental structure.’ Are things streamlined as a result? Is there more flexibility and less bureaucracy?

“A similar situation existed at Kean University in New Jersey in 2010 and for reasons similar to Wisconsin's: a huge budget deficit and declining enrollments. NJ.com reported that: The restructuring — which university administrators say will save nearly $2 million — will remove 38 department chairs from their posts and return them to the classroom. Under the plan, they will be replaced with executive directors and program coordinators who will manage 18 newly-consolidated schools on the Union Township campus.

“While not eliminating fields totally, it has, in essence, downgraded them to ‘Studies’ status. There's now a ‘School of English Studies,’ for example. Instead of a department chair, there's an executive director.

“I don't want to suggest that colleges and universities shouldn't respond to the various financial and cultural forces surrounding them. After all, many that now turn out lawyers, doctors and business leaders were founded to educate ministers and men, not women. Nor should we discount the value of vocational education. But to prioritize departments that pay over those that may be elemental (English, history, philosophy, for example) but not ‘profitable,’ is wrongheaded in the long run.

“To say, as columnist Peter Cohan did in 2012, that colleges should ‘cut out the departments offering majors that make students unemployable’ mistakes ‘education’ for ‘training’ in its most extreme form. Like many people, Cohan wrongly conflates major’ with ‘job’: ‘Those with majors in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities don't stand much of a chance of getting jobs requiring a college degree.’ He assumes that one's major will be one's career. As many, many liberal arts college graduates could tell him, he's far out in left field.

“So far, most of the biggest eviscerations of liberal arts missions seem to have been in public institutions. But they presage a dismal, corporatization of education, where ‘work’ is the only goal for every student and ‘productivity’ is the only measure of worth. Actions like those at Stevens Point send ripples far beyond Wisconsin; they give other institutions and lawmakers hostile to education, encouragement to do the same.

“Margaret Spellings, president of the University of North Carolina system, puts the case for a well-rounded education succinctly: ‘Education is not a commodity, and making it more accessible doesn’t make it less valuable. Our country thrives when more people get the chance to learn and contribute.’ Even future mechanics and firefighters can appreciate Homer or the origins and meaning of historical events. Surely, to study the history of race relations in the U.S. can help anyone become more conscious of today's social and cultural needs, for example. 

“They may not have ‘value’ according to strict economic rules, but the liberal arts do have a leavening value that helps make every student more than just a future drone, narrowly confined to his or her job without an awareness, let's say, of cultural context or an appreciation for art and literature. Applying strict cost/benefit analyses to academic fields may seem like a short-term cure, but in the long run, eliminating the humanities and other ‘unprofitable’ fields does more harm than good.”

It's Time To Worry When Colleges Erase Humanities Departments by Willard Dix

See  Willard Dix’s blog at collegeculture.net for essays about the college admission process itself.

Commentary 

The Case for Teaching Humanities:

“…Rain does not follow the plow. Political freedom, whatever the market evangelists may tell us, is not an automatic by-product of a growing economy; democratic institutions do not spring up, like flowers at the feet of the magi, in the tire tracks of commerce. They just don’t. They’re a different species. They require a different kind of tending. 

“The case for the humanities is not hard to make, though it can be difficult—to such an extent have we been marginalized, so long have we acceded to that marginalization—not to sound either defensive or naive. The humanities, done right, are the crucible within which our evolving notions of what it means to be fully human are put to the test; they teach us, incrementally, endlessly, not what to do but how to be. Their method is confrontational, their domain unlimited, their ‘product’ not truth but the reasoned search for truth, their ‘success’ something very much like Frost’s momentary stay against confusion. 

“They are thus, inescapably, political. Why? Because they complicate our vision, pull our most cherished notions out by the roots, flay our pieties. Because they grow uncertainty. Because they expand the reach of our understanding (and therefore our compassion), even as they force us to draw and redraw the borders of tolerance. Because out of all this work of self-building might emerge an individual capable of humility in the face of complexity; an individual formed through questioning and therefore unlikely to cede that right; an individual resistant to coercion, to manipulation and demagoguery in all their forms. 

“The humanities, in short, are a superb delivery mechanism for what we might call democratic values. There is no better that I am aware of. This, I would submit, is value— and cheap at the price. This is utility of a higher order. Considering where the rising arcs of our ignorance and our deference lead, what could represent a better investment? Given our fondness for slogans, our childlike susceptibility to bullying and rant, our impatience with both evidence and ambiguity, what could earn us, over time, a better rate of return?...” (Mark Slouka, “Dehumanized” 2009).