According to a speech given by New Yorker staff writer Louis Menand in Rockefeller yesterday, the humanities are undergoing an increasing struggle in American universities.
In Menand's hour-long presentation, "The Marketplace of Ideas," he discussed the transformation of the university system from the "Golden Age" (1945-75) to the present.
Menand, a Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, said that the university system expanded greatly after World War II and continued to see high enrollment because of economic growth, the baby boom and the Cold War.
According to Menand, one important event came soon after the launch of Sputnik by Russia in 1957, when the U.S. government passed the National Defense of Education Act. This subsidized higher education and stated that "everyone should have a chance to learn."
As a result of the new law, young men were entering college -- or, as Menand put it, "government-subsidized war havens" -- in record numbers.
He noted that enrollment leveled off after the Cold War, but diversity began to increase. "By 1970, there were fewer white American males [entering college]." Menand added that at about this time, Humanities departments began to falter.
As the student body changed, so did the class offerings. Specific departments such as "Women's Studies" and "Post-Colonial Studies" began to appear, and traditional disciplines, such as Mathematics, became less popular.
Menand also noted that the definitions of the traditional departments also changed. "Forty years ago, there was a specific definition for Anthropology. Now, the definition is 'whatever the people in Anthropology want it to be.'"
According to Menand, this change in curriculum began to cause a "shrinkage of liberal arts departments and colleges." Just over 200 colleges in the country are classified as four-year liberal arts colleges.
Currently, the most popular degree offered is Business.
At the end of his presentation, Menand admitted that his biggest fear about the shifting curriculum is that "the culture of the university will become the culture of society. The universities are for asking the questions that society doesn't want to ask."
"I became interested in the changing university system because I went to college in the Golden Age and graduate school in the post-Golden Age," explained Menand. "I wanted to better understand the differences."
