Visioning synergies in the School of Human Narratives

Sandra Oh takes over the English Department at a liberal arts university in The Chair.

"The departments of English, classics, philosophy, world languages and Spanish and Latino studies . . . will be grouped into the tentatively titled School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions" at New Jersey's Montclair State University, under a proposed restructuring plan, reports Sharon Otterman in the New York Times. "The psychology, linguistics, social work and religion departments will make up the School of Human Behavior and Well-Being." The rest of the College of the Humanities and Social Sciences will be grouped into two as-yet-unnamed departments and several institutes.

President Jonathan Koppell, came to Montclair State from Arizona State, which merged departments to create interdisciplinary schools. He says restructuring will improve collaboration across disciplinary lines. Professors suspect it's a plan to weaken and then eliminate the humanities.

Adam Rzepka, an English professor who specializes in early modern literature, called the plan "insane," writes Otterman.

“Colleges and universities only have one thing to sell at the end of the day, and that is learning from experts. Otherwise, it’s just more high school, but you have to go into debt for it.” -- Adam Rzepka, Montclair State English professor

In a blog post, he mocked the corporate blather of university announcements. "People who truly 'visioned' the potential synergies and multipliers in opportunities” and who possessed “a mindset for new imaginings of function in important and more creative ways" would future-proof the university, said a statement launching the process. There was vacuous talk of "excellence," "thriving," "flourishing" and "belonging."

This won't solve the “crisis of faith in higher education,” Rzepka wrote. It will make it worse.

Some universities are dropping under-enrolled majors, writes Otterman. Marymount, a private university in Virginia with 4,000 students, eliminated English, history, mathematics, philosophy and other majors and increased focus on career-oriented fields such as nursing and business administration.

Humanities and Social Sciences enrollment is increasing at Montclair State, but Koppell says that's primarily due to a rise in psychology majors. Some departments, including English, have fewer majors. Business administration is the largest undergraduate major at the university.

AI could revive the liberal arts degree, writes Jessica Stillman on Inc.

Enrollment in liberal arts majors such as English and history is down sharply across the nation, she writes. "Given the huge financial cost of most college degrees, many students want theirs to lead directly to gainful employment. Many struggle to see how studying philosophy or comparative literature will get them a job."

But the AI revolution could change everything, she writes.

"Technical degrees are no longer safe choices," said marketer and tech founder Lindsey McInerney in a recent TEDx talk. "We’re entering a world where the skills acquired in the pursuit of the humanities are not only going to be the most indispensable, but some of the most highly sought-after soon."

Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered, a banking giant, told Bloomberg that his MBA was "a waste of time" compared to the thinking skills he learned as an international relations major. “The technical skills are being provided by the machine, or by very competent people in other parts of the world who have really nailed the technical skills at a relatively low cost. I’m going to go back to curiosity and empathy. Really, really understand the audience that you’re dealing with and anticipate those needs beforehand.”

"The ability to deal with the messiness and unpredictability of people is the most AI-proof skill," according to Dave and Helen Edwards, co-founders of AI research firm Intelligenstia.ai. 

"You know where you can learn to empathize across difference, probe the deep weirdness of people, and get comfortable with change, uncertainty, and difficult trade-offs?," Stillman concludes. "By wrestling with the long, messy, beautiful history of human art and thought — a.k.a. studying the humanities."