Do the humanities still matter?
That’s been the question in headlines about higher education lately. The New York Times weighed in last week, examining the “existential crisis” facing these classic liberal arts programs nationwide. A big article in The New Yorker early in the year kicked off the serious hand-wringing, arguing that traditional liberal arts study has become the quaint province of a privileged elite, students who don’t require a return on their tuition investment and can afford to spend time on unremunerative pursuits. Next, as if to prove the point, over the summer the University of West Virginia said that in order to cut a yawning budget deficit it would cut a range of programs, from world languages to creative writing. Meanwhile, lower-profile announcements keep coming that smaller colleges facing enrollment challenges are eliminating less-popular majors, often in the humanities, to stay afloat.
But I think the crisis is ill-founded and these cuts are the wrong move. In fact, I think the humanities matter even more than ever. And I think they can thrive in the marketplace, proving not just their importance but their value for today’s students.
In fact, at Pace University, where I’m president, we’re proving that, when they’re taught the right way, the humanities can attract new students and prove their importance for a new generation of students.
Yes, it’s true that students today take a practical approach to their education. College is expensive. It’s a big investment of both money and time. And it’s investment that should and can yield big returns. And the truth is that studying the humanities — grappling with those things that quite literally make us human, the skills and ways of thinking that for generations young people have gone to college to encounter, debate, pore over, and master — is every bit as important to future success in the workplace as learning to code, calculate, or raise capital.
Because what we consistently hear from employers is that the difference between an adequate employee and great one lies not in technical skills — employers always believe they can teach those — but in the so-called “soft skills” that a classical liberal arts education helps tone hone.
I am currently on a recruitment and outreach trip to India, and I recently had a fascinating conversation with senior executives at one of the country’s largest employers, a sprawling conglomerate with a multinational presence. Like in the United States, professional employers here are struggling to find enough qualified applicants to fill all their vacant positions, these executives told me. And yet they still find themselves rejecting the majority of their applicants, not because they can’t do the basic work but because they lack the interpersonal skills necessary for career success.
These applicants would benefit from more time studying the humanities.
At Pace, where we have a long tradition of pre-professional training grounded in a rigorous liberal arts education, we know that the way to make the humanities compelling to today’s students is by making them practical and relevant. We show our students why they matter to their lives and their careers. We specialize in experiential education throughout our curriculum, in teaching by doing, and when we apply that model to the traditional liberal arts, students sign up.
As Kelley Kreitz, an associate professor of English on our New York City Campus, noted in a response to that New Yorker article, we offer English courses that include community outreach and archival research. We’ve had students researching the historical Spanish-language press in lower Manhattan and working on literacy projects with unhoused neighbors. Contrary to national trends, she points out, our number of English majors has grown by 47 percent over the last few years. Indeed, many of our traditional humanities departments integrate coursework with the kinds of practical, hands-on work that makes them attractive to our students.
Political science students have worked on research projects at the United Nations and presented policy memos to councils there. History students have developed oral histories of the Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matters movement in New York City. Media students have developed museum exhibits on toys and marketing targeting girls in the middle of 20th century. Humanities students working independently with faculty have conducted original research on a 19th century Black Shakespeare theater in lower Manhattan, queer life in Manhattan in the same period, and the gentrification of Chinatown.
This kind of study helps students to become the critical thinkers, effective communicators, and collaborative, and curious problem-solvers that employers value.
October was National Arts and Humanities Month in the United States. It’s an annual, nationwide celebration pegged to the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities, on which I served for a decade, and the National Endowment for Arts. It was an opportunity for arts and humanities organizations around the country to band together and showcase their importance to their communities and populations.
But a month isn’t enough. The arts and humanities are important not only for our communities but for our students. They make us all better people, and they make our students into better adults and better professionals, better prepared for the changing careers that lie ahead of them.
Let’s continue making the humanities relevant and practical for our students, and let’s make sure they continue to matter.
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