Humanities, Where Art Thou?

Author: Cinder Cooper Barnes, Montgomery College

At a humanities conference in the fall of 2023, the president of a large, multicampus urban community college asked a room of humanities faculty members—with his whole chest—“What would a history major do with their degree?” A college president. At a humanities conference. The question was and is indicative of the way some institutional leaders view the humanities. Departments and majors are under threat all over the country, partly because institutions have not demonstrated the importance that the skills developed in these programs contribute to the workforce and to society but instead are looking at the bottom line. Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, provost of Miami University, contends that “[t]here’s so much pressure about return on investment” in higher education (qtd. in Hartocollis), not its intrinsic value. Does a specific hard-skills-driven education in coding or information technology develop the same type of critical thinking as the humanities? I’m not sure, but I can reasonably say that the two different skill sets aren’t interchangeable, and to just offer the hard-skills-driven education in lieu of the power-skills-oriented education that the humanities offer would be a disservice. Yet this is the direction in which many institutions are headed. Students, regardless of their career or transfer aspirations, need to be able to think critically, challenge the status quo, and be engaged participants in their community and in the larger world. Institutions of higher learning, including and probably most importantly community colleges, have a responsibility to provide those skills to all students, and a strong humanities education can do that. In “Not a Big Stretch: Community College Humanities,” Ronald Cantor writes that the “humanities are key to the educational outcomes that employers demand most”: the ability to “communicate clearly and persuasively . . . think critically and work well with others to solve problems . . . and negotiate ambiguous environments” (28). While a number of colleges and universities are reducing their humanities and liberal arts offerings, some community colleges around the country have been adept at finding strategies to combine workforce readiness and the humanities through innovative programs that can be replicated.

To demonstrate the value of the humanities and liberal arts, stakeholders need an understanding of what the terms have meant traditionally and how they have evolved over the centuries. At the heart of a liberal arts education are the humanities, those subjects that “help us understand and interpret the human experience, as individuals and societies” (“What Are the Humanities?”). Higher education in the United States has been rooted in liberal arts education since the founding of Harvard College in 1636. It is true that this education was exclusive and the domain of wealthy white men. Like institutions that followed, Harvard’s goal was to “instill qualifications for leadership. . . . While imparting knowledge, their academic regimen was also intended to develop personal character and intellect” (Lang 134). A traditional liberal arts education in the United States meant providing general knowledge and developing the intellectual skills necessary to be an active participant and/or leader in civic life. Emily Griffen, director of the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning at Amherst College, asserts that “[l]iberal arts simply means the study of a wide variety of subjects, designed to encourage flexible thinking” (qtd. in Moody). During the early days of the country, the elite understood that to be taken seriously as a nation its settlers, colonists, and, later, citizens had to be able to create an intellectual foundation on which to develop a nation that could stand on its feet and compete across the globe with other thinkers. However, in the intervening three hundred years since the establishment of Harvard, other institutions took on a similar liberal arts charge but combined traditional education with the practical. Liberal education, though still limited in who could access it, was becoming less elite.

Today, the American Association of Colleges and Universities defines a liberal education as one that integrates “learning across the curriculum and co-curriculum, and between academic and experiential learning, in order to develop specific learning outcomes that are essential for work, citizenship, and life” (“What Is Liberal Education?”). The organization goes on to provide four essential learning outcomes that are gained from a liberal education: knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world, intellectual and practical skills, personal and social responsibility, and integrative and applied learning. Yet the suggestion today seems to be that liberal arts and humanities education is or should still be the domain of the elite. A survey of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences “found that over half of Americans agree with the statement that ‘the humanities attract people who are somewhat pretentious and elitist’” (Hanlon). However, if civic and societal leadership skills come with liberal-arts- and humanities-driven education, where does that leave those who are advised to focus on or major in the practical in lieu of liberal? Are we creating a permanent subclass who may be economically resilient as long as the political and corporate winds deem them worthy but unprepared for engagement in leadership that could effect change? The current director of the Modern Language Association, Paula Krebs, responding in 2018 to the proposed elimination of certain liberal arts and humanities majors in Wisconsin, warned of a belief about higher education that is familiar around the country: “If you are a working-class student, a first-generation college student, someone without the means to get you to a private college or to a public research university, then you should be channeled into job training.” What we are seeing at both two- and four-year institutions, but much more at two-year institutions, is a “[c]hanneling [of] people toward selected categories of job preparation based on their socioeconomic situation[, which] is contrary to American values” (Cantor 26).

For centuries, we have understood that the purpose of higher education is to prepare students to be thinking, productive citizens, to participate in civic life, to add to public discourse, and to add to knowledge creation. An education grounded not only in the sciences but in the arts and humanities has provided the citizens of societies around the world with the ability to think critically, engage, and create. Job training or arts and sciences—it does not have to be nor should it be an either/or proposition. Building on the conclusions reached in a 2013 report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that describes the importance of the humanities, Susan Bickerstaff and her colleagues argue “that the knowledge and skills derived from the study of humanities are the foundations for a healthy pluralistic society” (Exploring 2). In the years that I have been an educator, going on a quarter of a century, I have seen how imbuing students with power skills including critical reading, thinking, and writing; self-reflection; intercultural competencies; and communication is necessary for them to become productive members of their communities. These skills that transcend disciplines, stay with students beyond the walls of education institutions, and are the foundation of their work lives are often an immutable and intrinsic part of humanities disciplines. So, when headlines read “The Humanities Are Facing a Credibility Crisis” (The Washington Post), “Can Humanities Survive the Budget Cuts?” (The New York Times), and “The Decline of Liberal Arts and Humanities” (The Wall Street Journal), faculty members and humanities enthusiasts are not exaggerating their chagrin.

Across the country, humanities programs and majors are being reduced or even dissolved at four-year institutions. In the article “Can the Humanities Survive Budget Cuts?,” Anemona Hartocollis notes that programs like art history, music, and American studies and majors such as gender studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and social justice and women’s studies are being eliminated at major universities including Miami University, West Virginia University, University of Alaska, Iowa State University, and University of Kansas. More programs are being cut because of low enrollment as students choose “majors more closely aligned to employment” (Hartocollis). This is despite the fact that humanities majors are out-earning those without degrees and by mid-career catch up to those with social science degrees. Audrey Williams June writes that in forty-six states, humanities graduates’ earnings were “at least 40-percent higher than that of workers with only a high-school diploma. And in every state, the data show that the median salaries of humanities majors were about the same as or higher than those who earned degrees in the behavioral or social sciences, arts, or education.” In terms of unemployment, the rates for humanities graduates are comparable to other majors. So, the myth that humanities and liberal arts students are not being served by these programs is just that, a myth. In fact, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts it, liberal arts “is designed to prepare students for a variety of career options, rather than for a specific occupation” (qtd. in Moody). And, as technical fields rapidly change and the hard skills developed in higher education in two- and four-year institutions become outdated, according to Griffen, humanities students are “better prepared to ride out the coming sea change . . . ‘as the skills they bring to workplaces are not the skills that can be replaced by robots,’” redundancy, or obsolescence (Moody). Those with strong liberal arts and humanities foundations have historically demonstrated that they have the ability to pivot.

Community college humanities programs have been somewhat insulated from the “humanities crisis” for two major reasons. One, research and focus on teaching the humanities has been seen “as the purview of four-year liberal arts colleges,” and two, “community colleges are closely associated with workforce training” (Bickerstaff et al., Exploring 1, 7). Because community colleges aren’t seen as bastions of liberalism and elitism, politicians at both the local and state levels don’t focus their ire at our general education programs, which houses quite a few of our humanities courses. Instead, they laud our skills-based certificate programs and degrees, sometimes ignoring the humanities altogether. However, as the authors of the Community College Research Center white paper Exploring the State of the Humanities in Community Colleges note, “two-year colleges enroll almost 40% of all undergraduates and confer more degrees in humanities than any other sector of higher education” (Bickerstaff et al., Exploring 1). The latest data from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators found that “in 2018, the nation’s colleges conferred 413,246 associate’s degrees in liberal arts and the humanities, the highest level on record” (“Bachelor’s Degrees”). Research shows that the number of degrees in humanities disciplines at community colleges increased almost every year for thirty years between 1987-2018 (Jaschik). In fact, according to The Christian Science Monitor, “Enrollment in four-year and graduate degree programs in fields like history and literature has been dropping globally for years. That decline reflects job market trends more than a shift in intellectual curiosity. Despite the trend at four-year institutions, a study in Daedalus last year found that, in the United States, ‘the number of students earning associate’s degrees in the humanities and liberal arts in community colleges has grown to unprecedented levels’” in part because of the increasing diversity among their students (Editorial Board). At community colleges, pre-COVID-19, the number of “underrepresented minorities earning associate degrees in the humanities and liberal arts has increased in recent years” (Smith). Citing a 2015 report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Ashley Smith writes, “In 2015, 32.1 percent of the associate degrees in the humanities were awarded to black, Hispanic or Native American students—a 149 percent increase from 1989, when data were first collected.” One would think we would be in the clear. However, the pandemic led to a decline in higher education enrollment overall, and, too, the humanities have suffered at two-year colleges. The pandemic was only one culprit.

Two-year-college leaders are contending with two masters in regard to their responsibilities: economic and industry ones and intellectual and civic ones. One of the missions seems to be overshadowing the other to some degree. The authors of Exploring the State of the Humanities in Community Colleges assert that “emphasis on vocational education is evident in national legislation and initiatives, including the 2009 Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Program, which provided federal financial support to community colleges for increased workforce training, and the 2018 Pledge to America’s Workers, in which companies committed to increase employment and job training opportunities” (Bickerstaff et al., Exploring 7). These initiatives and commitments are not altruistic; the biggest benefactors are corporations. However, I am not suggesting this desire to drive economic growth is a negative desire at all, but I do believe that in the absence of promoting other types of education simultaneously, it is limited and limiting. The same employers who want to fill in labor gaps with hard-skills acquisition acknowledge that they also need workers “who can think critically and work well with diverse others to solve problems, and who have developed senses of proportion sufficient to establish priorities and negotiate ambiguous environments” (Cantor 27). Taking courses in the humanities and social sciences builds these skills. Bickerstaff and colleagues, using data collected from a 2018 American Association of Colleges and Universities study, note that “humanities coursework confers a set of skills focused on collaboration, ethical judgment, oral and written communication, and critical thinking that are essential to an advanced workforce and that employers themselves prioritize” (Exploring 4).

At two-year colleges, the humanities have served as the foundation of well-rounded general education programs, specifically preparing students to transfer but also serving to help students enter or reenter the workforce. And, yes, it is the job of the community college to prepare our students for either track, but even the four-year transfer track often focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Yet without imagination, creativity, and wonder, and without intense thought, analysis, and appreciation of the past, present, and future, which are engendered by the humanities, there is no STEM, there is no advancement, no new business, no ethical consciousness.

The humanities do provide employment skills, workplace skills, but they provide much more than that. They provide a foundation for being civically engaged and involved in co-creating the world around us. They provide the ability to think critically, to question, to change; “[Sujung] Kim argues that community colleges have the potential to be engines of social change, in addition to their capacity as engines of economic opportunity. The study of humanities provides a pathway for developing one’s views as a citizen in one’s local community as well as in the broader world” (Bickerstaff et al., Exploring 5). It is true that we want our students to change their economic status and circumstances for the better and be financially successful. However, our goal as educational institutions should also be to ensure that they have the skills to communicate and consciously consider the world in which they live. These skills come from exposure to studies in literature, history, political science, arts, and the like. Given this, we must ensure students, particularly community college students who may end their higher education within our institutions, can nimbly navigate the winds of trades-based crafts that evolve rapidly.

And most community colleges are already positioned to do this. We just have to be better advertisers of the good work we are doing with so little and how much more good work we could do with more resources and curricular realignment. Our leaders have to shout from the rooftops that community colleges “are able to maintain investments in technical and trades programs, and to offer the same low tuition rate for students enrolled in them, due in no small part to the net revenue generated by courses that are less expensive to offer, such as those in the humanities” (Cantor 28). Cantor goes on to suggest that “reductions in liberal arts offerings actually create financial deficits that directly affect the ability to offer the technical and trades programs that are still the backbone of community colleges” (28). This is likely the case at community colleges around the country.

Other risks to the growth of humanities at community colleges are confusion around transferability, course alignment, and coherent learning experiences.

In most community colleges, humanities students often major in liberal arts or general studies, and, as Bickerstaff and her colleagues acknowledge, there is often a “misalignment between two- and four-year humanities programs and a resulting loss of credits during the transfer process” (Smoothing 3). This loss of credit and time can be discouraging to students. Mariet Westermann, executive vice president of the Mellon Foundation, argues that “this problem can be resolved when humanities faculty across the institutions share the common goal of supporting these aspiring humanities majors” (qtd. in Smith). My institution, Montgomery College, is making concerted efforts in supporting humanities majors through co-curricular activities and professional development for faculty along with solidifying transfer agreements for associate’s degree graduates. Partially because of our proximity to the nation’s capital, my institution, Montgomery College, offers opportunities for students to get internship experience not only in the sciences but in the humanities at organizations including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Museums. According to the Paul Peck Institute’s website, “These internships are designed to place interns in professional environments with scholars and practitioners at world-class research sites located in our region” (“Paul”). The Institute also supports student digital storytelling interns and communities of practice in courses; and Smithsonian faculty fellowships, where faculty members are given release time to learn about area museums and create projects integrating museum studies into their curricula. Our Global Humanities Institute focuses on connecting faculty with internal and external opportunities for globalizing their curricula by introducing them to overseas professional development experiences and assisting them with applications and contacts. These two institutes, along with supportive leadership, ensure that students and faculty have options for leveraging the humanities and applying what they gained personally and professionally across disciplines. Even though we, as a community college, are uniquely situated because we are so geographically close to a major metropolitan area, other community colleges can leverage the cultural institutions in their community and online resources to make the same connections.

Another strategy that can be used to address the issue of students not receiving credit for their humanities coursework is to partner with four-year institutions to create guided pathways between the two. Examples of programs and realignments exist all around the country. Michigan Community College Association led the Strengthening the Michigan Humanities (MiHumanities) project, which designed transfer pathways in four humanities fields: communication, English, history, and theater. One of the biggest hurdles for community college students wanting to transfer to four-year institutions is the acceptance of coursework and repetition of classes, which can be disheartening and costly to students. The MiHumanities project increased “coordination and curricular alignment between two- and four-year institutions” (Bickerstaff et al., Smoothing 1). These efforts included providing opportunities for students to understand the value of the humanities; building infrastructure for coordination between two- and four-year institutions that addresses “institutional misalignment in course numbering, content, and learning objectives,”; having straightforward transfer agreements; “[helping] students explore humanities career possibilities” (Bickerstaff et al., Smoothing 12, 15); and demonstrating how skills derived from the humanities can lend themselves in a variety of nonhumanities fields. Community colleges in Michigan are also providing “embedding enriching co-curricular experiences into students’ courses and showing connections between the humanities and a wide range of professions” (Bickerstaff et al., “Community”). Programs including the Preparing Accomplished Transfers in the Humanities (PATH) program at the San Diego Community College District have “helped to staunch the flow of students abandoning fields that they love,” write Carmen Carrasquillo and her colleagues (8). And we know that students do love their humanities courses even if they are challenged by them. In the report A Foundation and a Fire: Strengthening Humanities Education in Community Colleges, student interviewees pointed out that the humanities help them “make connections between disparate ideas . . . and foster experimentation, creativity, and resilience” (Cho et al. 7). In addition, some two- and four-year colleges around the country are providing career-specific humanities courses such as the history of manufacturing or the history of nursing, medical humanities, and storytelling for healing, which allow students to see their disciplines in a larger historical and social context. Curricular changes such as these could help bridge the academic divide.

Despite some concerted efforts that are being made to balance the humanities and other STEM and career-focused disciplines, some are still reluctant to invest in the field. Because of this disconnect, and because education and professional organizations understand that positioning various areas together, they are attempting to “enhance the visibility of humanities education in community colleges” (Bickerstaff et al., Exploring 10). The Community College Humanities Association, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Council of American Research Centers, Fulbright, the Mellon Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies are just a few. We cannot let this support lead to naught. We must be our own advocates.

We have work to do—important work—to prepare students to thrive in a world that is complicated and evolving, and as long as we are willing to evolve along with our students, their needs, and the needs of the planet, this work is totally doable. We have best practices, road maps, and research to help guide us. We just have to be willing to engage in the processes.

Works Cited

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Bickerstaff, Susan, et al. “Community Colleges Are Key Players in Strengthening the Humanities.” The Mixed Methods Blog, Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia U, 22 March 2023, ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/community-colleges-key-players-in-strengthening-humanities.html.

Bickerstaff, Susan, et al. Exploring the State of the Humanities in Community Colleges. Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia U, May 2020. CCRC Working Paper 119.

Bickerstaff, Susan, et al. Smoothing Pathways to Transfer in the Humanities: A Report on the Strengthening Michigan Humanities Project. Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia U, March 2023.

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Carrasquillo, Carmen, et al. “Students Do Want to Major in the Arts and Humanities: They Just Need the Support.” Community College Journal, June/July 2023, www.ccjournal-digital.com/ccjournal/library/item/june_july_2023/4107578/.

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