There is a crisis—or a series of crises—in the humanities that have been well discussed in conservative circles. The liberal arts have been suffering from a loss of enrollment, a loss of purpose, and increasing politicization. In academia, the tendency has generally been to fend off enrollment losses at the expense of having a congruent, purposeful curriculum (while actively promoting a radical political agenda).
But reality is starting to hit home. UNC had a conference a couple of weeks ago entitled “Public Universities, the Humanities, and Education in North Carolina,” to discuss the crisis of the humanities. Only they defined the crisis differently: it turns out the real problem is … the critics. Particularly the policymakers who identify higher education with graduate employment and no longer blindly throw money at public university systems.
Also, the academic establishment’s vision of the crisis seems to suggest that the only choices are unqualified support for the liberal arts—as defined by themselves—and contempt for the liberal arts. In denial of the vast middle ground in which real reform is urged.
Jesse Saffron was at the conference and analyzes the folly here.