<p>Another day, another take on the state of humanities in US colleges</p>
<p>[The</a> Humanities, Declining? Not According to the Numbers. - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-Declining-Not/140093/]The”>http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-Declining-Not/140093/)</p>
<p>[Be</a> employable, study philosophy - Salon.com](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/be_employable_study_philosophy_partner/]Be”>http://www.salon.com/2013/07/01/be_employable_study_philosophy_partner/)</p>
<p>this too.</p>
<p>Someone actually took the time to look at the data before writing an article. How strange! ;)</p>
<p>Grades and grade inflation both tend to be higher in the humanities than in the sciences and social sciences, which may help to explain the enrolment patterns. A paper by Achen and Courant examined the determinants of grade inflation at the University of Michigan. In the period 2005-7, the highest lower division grades were in Afroamerican and African studies, History, Sociology, Psychology, English, Anthropology, History of Art, Womens studies, Linguistics, German, American culture, Comparative literature (in ascending order). Many of these same departments had the highest upper division grades as well. Of course, it is hard to have high grade inflation when your grades are already high, so the humanities did not have substantially higher grade inflation. But the point remains that high grades may help maintain enrolments. </p>
<p>The paper can be found at: [An</a> Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie](<a href=“http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.23.3.77]An”>http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.23.3.77)</p>
<p>[How</a> to reinvigorate the humanities at Harvard is the subject of new reports | Harvard Magazine](<a href=“http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/06/reinvigorating-the-humanities]How”>http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/06/reinvigorating-the-humanities)
“Among the data-driven findings: the percentage of humanities concentrators fell during the last 60 years from 24 to 17 percent, dropping between 2003 and 2012 from 21 to 17 percent.”</p>
<p>i.e. a 20% decline in the number of humanities majors at Harvard in the past decade</p>
<p>Berube’s article in the Chronicle contributes a valuable and refreshing point of view; he points out that (1) the NUMBER of English majors has held steady, and (2) the PERCENTAGE of humanities majors has also held steady.</p>
<p>What he acknowledges, however, is that (1) the PERCENTAGE of English majors has indeed declined, the constancy in NUMBERS being explained simply by more people going to college, and (2) the PERCENTAGE of humanities majors has only held steady because the NCES study includes into the humanities the visual and performance arts, where enrollment has exploded.</p>
<p>Therefore, the cup-half-empty side can still claim correctly that the “core” humanities – English, history, foreign languages and literatures, philosophy – are taken a beating in college, percentage-wise. And it appears that the continuing subdividing and proliferation in me-studies(gender/race/class/popular culture) are not making up for the decline in the more traditional areas. It’s the growth in the visual and performing arts that’s doing the job, and some commentators ask whether visual arts courses like “social media marketing” count as humanities.</p>
<p>The cup is, at best, only half-full, and some introspection and self-criticism, as done by Harvard, seems called for.</p>
<p>And this article by a literature lover:</p>
<p>[Who</a> Ruined the Humanities? - WSJ.com](<a href=“Who Ruined the Humanities? - WSJ”>Who Ruined the Humanities? - WSJ)</p>
<p>The Trilling part, towards the middle of the article, is lovely: “Compare Yeats, Gide, Lawrence, and Eliot in the use which they make of the theme of sexuality to criticize the deficiencies of modern culture. Support your statement by specific references to the work of each author. [Time: One hour.]'”</p>
<p>Good article, 4thfloor.</p>