At West Virginia University, a budget squeeze takes aim at the humanities.
I am frustrated because there seems to be no recourse of consequence. The university has offered an appeals process and I suppose that’s something. The students have raised their voices in protest and were left wondering if their voices will be heard and respected. Whenever something like this happens in the United States, regardless of the occupation, it’s the little people who get crushed — the folks who’ve been told that all the American Dream requires is hard work and dedication.
I am angry because the students will pay the price. The ones who aren’t necessarily interested in the highest paying job or the most popular major. The ones who are looking to be creative first and well paid, well, maybe later. I know college enrollments suffered during the pandemic. But the students will return — if someone is here to teach them. I am angry because we seem to be turning everything that celebrates our shared humanity into a business.
I also sense a push toward a set of educational values that would make our population more pliable, agreeable and passive. So busy trying to make a living that we don’t have time to think. We cut liberal arts at our own peril. West Virginia University’s president, E. Gordon Gee, says that what is happening on campus is part of a larger trend taking place across the country. I hope he’s wrong.
My return to campus this year has not produced the same anticipation and excitement that it did last year. There is now a sense of dread. And I can see the confusion and worry on my students’ faces, particularly the graduate students whose great hopes are now replaced by anxiety and uncertainty. I am resolved to keep a “chin-up” attitude toward my job and my students. None of this is their fault.
I still believe that universities should be a place for discovery and self-discovery — and for learning more about the world while seeking a vocation. But for too many people, it seems, education is only about money. And that doesn’t bode well for our shared future.
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