The warnings family members give about starving English majors are working — students are fleeing from the humanities en masse.
According to the American Institute for Arts and Sciences, interest in humanities programs across college campuses has dropped by around half in the past two decades. Disinterest in the humanities is evident even at Fordham, where required liberal arts courses are met with apathy or disdain. Instead, students have shifted to more “lucrative” majors that ostensibly secure job opportunities. The number of computer science students in the past decade has doubled. At Fordham, finance holds the uncontested spot for the most popular field of study as of 2022. Clearly, a shift has occurred.
While there has long been a supposed “crisis in the humanities,” the current decline is unlike any in the past. Across college campuses, English, history and communications programs are being shut down and defunded. On a federal level, President Donald Trump recently disbanded the Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities. If the humanities are to be saved — a task becoming more difficult by the day — it must be now, at a time when so many people dismiss a liberal arts education. As such, understanding why students are unenthusiastic about the humanities is crucial.
A leading cause for the slow death of the humanities — and the corresponding rise in more “lucrative” majors — is careerism. Students, especially those thousands of dollars in debt from tuition fees, are disincentivized from pursuing “useless degrees.” As such, they opt for academic careerism, prioritizing their future career and financial gain as the goal of their education. As early as freshman year, students are already worrying about optimizing their college experience solely to pipeline them into industries like consulting or civil engineering.
This careerism is a natural response to student loans, as graduates need to make a return on their college investment. Knowing that they need college for financial security while paying significant tuition fees, students naturally gravitate towards viewing academia as a means to an end. Thus, majors that leave students questioning job prospects after graduation become an impractical luxury.
Given such serious concerns, why save the humanities? If students’ interest is falling so much, why bother trying to change their minds?
The disdain towards the humanities caused by career pressure is more misguided than it seems. For one, while students perceive humanities as leading to financially unstable jobs, this is often not the case. While non-liberal arts majors do generally outperform liberal arts majors in salary after graduation by a substantial $15,000, the liberal arts still have bright financial prospects. Employers often prefer students with a broader humanities background, as their soft skills (like communication and creativity) are extremely valuable in the workforce. Humanities graduates experience a significant growth in their pay over time, narrowing the gap between them and other majors.
There is clear value in developing a more robust way of seeing the world and others through the humanities.
The common notion that it is more difficult for humanities majors to find jobs is also questionable. A study by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences indicates that unemployment rates among humanities majors after college are virtually the same as those of students in any other major, at around 3%. Overall, the pervasive idea that humanities majors are significantly worse off in their careers and ability to pay off loans is unsupported by evidence.
More importantly, though, it is critical to see outside of the careerist framework so common on college campuses. The world cannot run on investment bankers alone; the intellectual rigor cultivated by humanities programs is necessary for the future. Education in the classics is crucial for making students into better adults who can stand on their own, with independent ideas and worldviews.
As people become increasingly anti-intellectual, they tend to discount the liberal arts as frivolous. However, there is clear value in developing a more robust way of seeing the world and others through the humanities. Without using college for personal development, people lack the critical thinking skills that help them in their future careers as well as their lives.
Personally, I would be disappointed if more humanities classes were cut from Fordham’s class roster, as that would erase opportunities to further develop my education and sense of self.
At first, I struggled to engage with Fordham’s liberal arts curriculum. As a finance student, I saw classes like theology and philosophy as an impediment to the more “important” parts of my education. While I was initially dismissive, I surprisingly found the core curriculum to be enjoyable. For example, although I planned to only do the bare minimum in my philosophy class, I ended up shouting my way through impassioned class discussions. Through my engagement with the liberal arts classes, I began to realize that the constant negativity I had heard about the humanities in college — from both my parents and fellow students — was misplaced.
The irony of defending the humanities so ardently as a finance major is not lost on me. The reason I care about the preservation of classic college courses and majors is because I can see the importance they hold. Personally, I would be disappointed if more humanities classes were cut from Fordham’s class roster, as that would erase opportunities to further develop my education and sense of self.
As for preventing the humanities from dying out, I believe the best solution is also the most difficult one: lowering the financial barrier to entry. If students could explore liberal arts curricula further without feeling like they are risking their future, it could greatly benefit the liberal arts. It is not unreasonable for students to gravitate towards majors they think will set them up for success, given the steep investment college requires. Thus, the main way to help students break from this mindset is to alleviate the financial stress that they feel.
For a less idealistic solution, simply defending the humanities against the misinformed scorn they receive is a start. If at the very least students knew that the liberal arts could offer a stable career, many would feel inclined to study humanities further.
The hostility towards the liberal arts — from students, parents and even the President of the United States — reveals the impact they have. While careerism will never fully leave universities, it is vital to redirect its encroachment on the humanities. In times plagued by a refusal to understand others and change the way we think, the value of a holistic education is especially irreplaceable; its preservation is a responsibility we cannot ignore.
