Colleges firing humanities professors

[Anonymous]

I majored in a liberal arts. That was fine when I could pay with summer jobs and babysitting for state school. But these prices demand real ROI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

I dunno but I think a lot of people in foreign policy positions have a liberal arts background. Some even in, yikes, history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

I dunno but I think a lot of people in foreign policy positions have a liberal arts background. Some even in, yikes, history.

that isn't saying much given the state of our government. But, it also depends on the type of foreign policy. Some have STEM backgrounds, and the majority probably have advanced degrees of some kind.

Or, you just need to be the son in law of a bankrupt and corrupt POTUS to become a foreign policy expert and advisor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I majored in a liberal arts. That was fine when I could pay with summer jobs and babysitting for state school. But these prices demand real ROI.

+1 this is the thing.. wages have not kept up with the cost of college. For most people, if they are going to college, you want a good ROI for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

Who do you think is going to teach them if you lay off the professors? The vast, vast majority of students ANY humanities professor at a non-elite, undergraduate college teaches are not majors. They are students who are going to need to be able to write and speak and do research in their careers. Yeah, STEM students too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the hate against liberal arts is not a bug but a feature of a system that more and more seems to be capitalizing on people’s fears so the status quo isn’t challenged. And I say this as someone who works in a science based/“practical” field.

Side note: Why is this phrase so popular now? Within the past year or two, everything is said to be "not a bug but a feature."

The status quo would be to keep the liberal arts departments, wouldn't it? They're eliminating departments that fewer students are majoring in bc they don't need as many profs to teach those classes, since not as many students are taking the classes.

It's bot language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is Lesley U?

I don't know but a number of schools, Goucher and West Virginia U, are doing this because they can't afford to keep so many profs around. Covid hit a lot of these colleges hard. Note in the article this was union-arranged.

Why we crossed Goucher off our list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have long believed that the college market was in a bubble that would burst. This is why I haven't funded our 529s at the level suggested-- I hear 120k per kid, and I don't believe the market will hold at prices that high into the next decade. I'm in a position to pay cash for basically any college without much angst, so the only reason to fund a 529 is the tax advantages. I don't believe the tax advantages outweigh the risk of the market popping and college prices coming back down to earth.

Sounds like you need to talk with a tax advisor and a wealth management professional because there are a lot of things you can do with a 529 now even if your kid doesn't go to college or tuition prices drop, but you can't go in the other direction and recapture the lost tax savings from cashing out investments outside of the 529 to pay for college if your prediction doesn't come true.

+1. Huge mistake not funding. Also many don’t think the bubble will burst because the schools can just bring in more full pay international students should the American market lessen. Are you prepared to tell your kids junior year of high school that they cs should not apply anywhere but attend community college because mommy was wrong about inflation, the college market, what 529s can do? Every single money magazine predicted back when that by the time my kids hit college there would be little demand because the American high school population was decreasing. Less demand = drop in fees. Didn’t happen because none of those magazines saw then the huge swell of full pay international students. I would have been wrong if I had followed that advice. Instead I saved and saved from kids’ births and it still wasn’t enough. What will PP be wrong on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

This is short-sighted thinking, and also written by someone who doesn't understand how college finances work. At many universities, the number of majors per department is not as useful a number as the number of students taught per professor. So, you'll have lots of people who need to take classes in math, statistics, foreign languages, history, literature, world religions, philosophy, etc., but they won't necessarily major in them. Universities need these faculty.
The market is not always a good indicator--it's a short term indicator. It can take years of education to fully train people who become experts in the Middle East or East Asia. If you want to save historically important art or literature, you also need to train students for a long time.
Humans are not just robots, there are a lot of factors that lead to a full and meaningful life. Maybe you and your family personally don't appreciate the arts, design, history, religion, or foreign cultures, but a lot of people do, and investing in people who can create and preserve these aspects of humanity is worthwhile for those who can appreciate their importance.

I love history, studying foreign cultures, religion, philosophy and nearly 20% of my book collection is biographies. They are all important and make life interesting and meaningful.

The flaw in your thinking is that we need a huge portion of our students to be majoring in them. As I mentioned, more than 60% of course work even for a STEM degree is in these fields. We dont need 25% of the population majoring in these to "who can create and preserve these aspects of humanity". The numbers a fraction of what is currently being output in universities.

You are dead wrong about the market. It might be wrong in the short term, but it is always right in the long term. Market gets somethings wrong in the short term, we see this again and again. But 100% right in long term. No exception. None. Show me one case where something has been wrong say 30 years in market price. Name one single thing.

The market is saying history and other such majors are not worth the money being spent. If you major in these, you are just hoping something clicks or the Government is going to wipe out your debt.

Please read carefully. That is not the argument I made.

There is a joke to be made here.

[Anonymous]

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2023/10/08/miami-university-to-reinvent-18-majors-with-low-enrollment/70984039007/

More humanities major cutting.
It says Miami U
I think its Miami U of Ohio

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

Who do you think is going to teach them if you lay off the professors? The vast, vast majority of students ANY humanities professor at a non-elite, undergraduate college teaches are not majors. They are students who are going to need to be able to write and speak and do research in their careers. Yeah, STEM students too.

So true. My Chemistry/Chinese double major kid found out the Asian history class involves a whole different level of reading and writing (much more extensive) than his Chemistry classes.
I truly believe it will serve him well later in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

Who do you think is going to teach them if you lay off the professors? The vast, vast majority of students ANY humanities professor at a non-elite, undergraduate college teaches are not majors. They are students who are going to need to be able to write and speak and do research in their careers. Yeah, STEM students too.

So true. My Chemistry/Chinese double major kid found out the Asian history class involves a whole different level of reading and writing (much more extensive) than his Chemistry classes.
I truly believe it will serve him well later in life.

UMD requires essentially a minor for CS majors. Kind of hoping he takes advantage of one of the non-technical minors that require fewer prerequisites like philosophy or linguistics rather than math or robotics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

I dunno but I think a lot of people in foreign policy positions have a liberal arts background. Some even in, yikes, history.

And the track record of American foreign policy success really shows the value of that liberal arts training, lmao.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2023/10/08/miami-university-to-reinvent-18-majors-with-low-enrollment/70984039007/

More humanities major cutting.
It says Miami U
I think its Miami U of Ohio

"Students at Miami University may no longer be able to major in some humanities programs, such as American studies, religion or health communication."

So they can major in something less oddly specific for undergrad. This isn't death of humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The world does not need more history, philosophy, literature, religious studies students. Students who are going into these fields have not been advised properly.

Everyone is learning humanities. Including STEM students. Look at their course work, more than 60% in humanities.

You dont need a major in history. Who would need history majors? History teachers/professors, yes. That is a tiny portion of the population. The numbers graduating in that major are multiples of those actually needed.

How do we know? The market is a good mechanism for what skills are valuable. If you paid attention in humanities courses, you would have learned about it.

- STEM professional

I dunno but I think a lot of people in foreign policy positions have a liberal arts background. Some even in, yikes, history.

And the track record of American foreign policy success really shows the value of that liberal arts training, lmao.

The people setting policy aren't the academic experts.