In Old Main, students are busy with work. Some are walking to class, others are furiously studying their textbook, and a few are scrolling on their phone. This historic building, beloved to many, is the home of the Humanities at Utah State University. As the proposed higher education funding cuts loom, students and academics wonder if the humanities is the first to go.
“I think we have a lot of good data that humanities majors end up in good jobs, but it sometimes takes a little while for them to land in the places that they want to be. So I guess my concern would be that if we focus too much on a graduate coming, getting done in May, and having a job in June that they are gonna keep for life that's high paying, it really excludes a lot of people in our state,” said Tammy Proctor.
I asked Tammy Proctor, Interim Director of the Heravi Peace Institute and Distinguished Professor of History at USU, where she thinks liberal arts and the humanities stands with the proposed cut, particularly because the legislature is considering economic outcome and job placement as metrics to determine if a program is valuable.
“I think that it's thinking broadly about what it means to have a meaningful job and to contribute to society. And, you know, the humanities clearly do that. And if you look at our current legislature most of their degrees are in humanities or social science fields,” said Proctor.
In a email sent from USU President Elizabeth Cantwell to University Staff she stated, “We are actively working to mitigate the impact of these potential reductions on our students and our core teaching and research missions. However, adjustments of this magnitude will necessitate difficult decisions regarding academic programs.”
Utah State anticipates their share of the reduction to be approximately $15 million and has yet to release details on affected programs.
