Sidney Morning Herald -The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point has proposed dropping 13 majors in the humanities and social sciences - including English, philosophy, history, sociology and Spanish - while adding programs with "clear career pathways" as a way to address declining enrollment and a multimillion-dollar deficit.
Students and faculty members have reacted with surprise and concern to the news, which is being portrayed by the school's administration as a path to regain enrollment and provide new opportunities to students. Critics see something else: a waning commitment to liberal arts education and a chance to lay off faculty under new rules that weakened tenure. The value of certain majors is under question.
The plan to cut the liberal arts and humanities majors is in line with a failed attempt by Republican Governor Scott Walker in 2015 to secretly change the mission of the respected university system - known as the Wisconsin Idea and embedded in the state code - by removing words that commanded the university to "search for truth" and "improve the human condition" and replacing them with "meet the state's workforce needs."
The push away from liberal arts and toward workplace skills is championed by conservatives who see many four-year colleges and universities as politically correct institutions that graduate too many students without practical job skills - but with liberal political views.
1 comment:
They did it to themselves every step of the way. They deserve no pity.
Let's hope other universities follow suit and purge the demons. The institution has the saving grace of peer review and bias correction. But if they stop using it then they're just another church. And these days they're at the stage of inquisitions and witch hunts. The consequences of which should not be underestimated.
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