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The University of Vermont has announced that it will be eliminating several of its programs, including Classics and Religion. 1/ https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2020/12/02/uvm-announces-plan-to-eliminate-more-than-two-dozen-academic-programs
My colleagues in the Humanities have been fearing things like this for the last several years, as many universities and colleges have been leaning toward diminishing or eliminating these types of programs. 2/
In fact, before the pandemic, one university in PA (which shall go nameless) floated the idea that students in their Liberal Arts college will not have to take any Humanities courses at all. 3/
The idea, it seemed, was that more students would enroll in other types of courses that could be more "marketable" in terms of finding employment after graduating...so to keep enrollments high, the university would just cater to what they thought students wanted. 4/
This mentality is part of why universities are in such dire straights now during the pandemic; they have adopted a business model where students are seen as customers and thus the university has to create products to keep the customers happy to stay in business. 5/
Much of that "product" involves selling the idea of the university "experience" - social and professional networking - to position them to get jobs after graduation. 6/
This is valuable in and of itself, but it shouldn't come at the cost of the Humanities. Far too many students enter university with the idea drilled into their heads that their courses should only be about getting jobs, and other kinds of courses aren't important at all. 7/
This isn't new. I remember going to undergrad orientation at Univ. of Michigan after my dad scolded at me not to take "Mickey Mouse" courses that wouldn't get me into law or medical school. It was 1990, I was **17**, and this was already part of the middle-class liturgy. 8/
But of course, we see now where that has led. We have over 70 million people in this country who are incapable of thinking critically, who have no historical or philosophical frame of reference, and whose decisions have imperiled democracy and thousands of lives. 9/
Viewing university education as nothing more than job prep is what has led to this social and public health crisis, no doubt catalyzed by people in government who also have no regard for the skills that emerge from studying the Humanities. 10/
I realize I am personally invested in this because I teach in a religion department (one of the programs that Univ. of Vermont is eliminating on their campus), but that doesn't mean I'm wrong in arguing for the essential nature of the Humanities to a functioning society. 11/
I tell my students regularly that studying literature or language or philosophy or history may not GET you a job, but it will help you succeed at that job and help you navigate your way through a turbulent world where information is increasingly immediate and overwhelming. 12/
Surely, the study of religion helps us understand Trumpism -- a political ethos steeped in right-wing religious thinking, power structures, values and myths. @JeffSharlet has done a lot of work on this, and I wrote about it in this op-ed: 13/ https://www.smerconish.com/criticalthinking/seeing-election-denial-as-religious-fervor
For Univ. of Vermont to eliminate this and other fundamental fields of study is to do fall prey to the failed business model I mentioned above, where the university experience is a product and students are customers. 14/
And it does a terrible disservice to those students by stopping them from learning things that can actively, tangibly help them in their lives and help our society avoid the misguided mistakes that have now imperiled our collective futures. 15/
I will end with this comment made by a colleague out here, which perfectly sums up my feelings on this and expresses how we should all feel about Univ. of Vermont's terrible decision. 16/16 https://twitter.com/oligopistos/status/1334514095987585025
