Humanities have been declining because there isn't any humanities left -- the studies gutted them. This happened for once and all about 20 years ago -- started before then, but the nail went into the coffin at that point.
Granted, the humanities were never supposed to be a big school to begin with: you only need so many degree canidates, but their purpose was very important for the 100/200 classes -- civ. classes, ethics, logic...really are helpful in creating a graduate with a specialty + some broad knowledge.
The old survey and intro. classes were great and taught a lot of general broad information -- and they could be a blast as these were non-major students, but it's been a long time since they were around.
Humanities are on the decline because we don't really teach any; there's little to no worth in those classes. Even composition and rhetoric -- a valuable class really, if I do say so myself -- hasn't been taught in any true form in over a decade.
Uh, no. "Studies" hasn't replaced humanties. Humanities have been on decline because universities turned into job training centers where corporations could outsource a function. Humanities still cling to life at some colleges and universities with very little funding because STEM, healthcare, and business have been prioritized. Conservatives also failed to do anything to address the college problem and simply threw their hands up as faculty became more radical and costs ballooned out of control.
True, conservatives fail to conserve anything -- least of all the traditional liberal arts education.
From what I have seen, the studies did supplant the old humanities, general ed. survey courses (which were the backbone of that department)...and yes, this has largely been due to what you are talking about. Those studies courses are Marxist through and through, but the colleges are after money -- and they know that STEM, healthcare, and business (the 'serious' degrees) plus studies (the "non-serious' courses/degrees) get them that.
There are some hold outs, but for how long is anyone's conjecture -- my money would be on "not for too much longer at this rate".
I don't know about the colleges in your state/area, but here the studies have become part of the gen. ed. curriculum -- you don't have to take the traditional humanities courses, you can opt to take a studies class (besides, you've got to take a diversity class anyway, so why not kill two birds? and the studies classes are notoriously easy to pass -- if you can cope with cheering on the invariable indoctrination).
Like I said: the humanities were never supposed to be large; there isn't that much need for many specialists in those fields; the bulk of courses, the real reason for the humanities to exist, were required gen. ed. courses (and the traditional ones served a good purpose), and sometimes as a minor (I believe the President has a humanities minor to go along with his business major). But most people don't like having to take them (done right, they aren't cream puff classes), the corporate (and international) sponsors don't give money for them, and the colleges don't give a shit so here we are.
Humanities have been declining because there isn't any humanities left -- the studies gutted them. This happened for once and all about 20 years ago -- started before then, but the nail went into the coffin at that point.
Granted, the humanities were never supposed to be a big school to begin with: you only need so many degree canidates, but their purpose was very important for the 100/200 classes -- civ. classes, ethics, logic...really are helpful in creating a graduate with a specialty + some broad knowledge.
The old survey and intro. classes were great and taught a lot of general broad information -- and they could be a blast as these were non-major students, but it's been a long time since they were around. Humanities are on the decline because we don't really teach any; there's little to no worth in those classes. Even composition and rhetoric -- a valuable class really, if I do say so myself -- hasn't been taught in any true form in over a decade.
Uh, no. "Studies" hasn't replaced humanties. Humanities have been on decline because universities turned into job training centers where corporations could outsource a function. Humanities still cling to life at some colleges and universities with very little funding because STEM, healthcare, and business have been prioritized. Conservatives also failed to do anything to address the college problem and simply threw their hands up as faculty became more radical and costs ballooned out of control.
True, conservatives fail to conserve anything -- least of all the traditional liberal arts education. From what I have seen, the studies did supplant the old humanities, general ed. survey courses (which were the backbone of that department)...and yes, this has largely been due to what you are talking about. Those studies courses are Marxist through and through, but the colleges are after money -- and they know that STEM, healthcare, and business (the 'serious' degrees) plus studies (the "non-serious' courses/degrees) get them that.
There are some hold outs, but for how long is anyone's conjecture -- my money would be on "not for too much longer at this rate".
"Studies" doesn't make them much money at all, few students enroll in those classes or programs
I don't know about the colleges in your state/area, but here the studies have become part of the gen. ed. curriculum -- you don't have to take the traditional humanities courses, you can opt to take a studies class (besides, you've got to take a diversity class anyway, so why not kill two birds? and the studies classes are notoriously easy to pass -- if you can cope with cheering on the invariable indoctrination).
Like I said: the humanities were never supposed to be large; there isn't that much need for many specialists in those fields; the bulk of courses, the real reason for the humanities to exist, were required gen. ed. courses (and the traditional ones served a good purpose), and sometimes as a minor (I believe the President has a humanities minor to go along with his business major). But most people don't like having to take them (done right, they aren't cream puff classes), the corporate (and international) sponsors don't give money for them, and the colleges don't give a shit so here we are.