The Humanities, Declining? Not According to the Numbers

By Michael Bérubé. In recent years, enrollments in the humanities have plummeted. The evidence is everywhere: Last month, in The New York Times, Verlyn Klinkenborg noted "the recent shift away from the humanities" in an essay titled "The Decline and Fall of the English Major." In his 2009 American Scholar essay, "The Decline of the English Department," William M. Chace noted that English accounted for 7.6 percent of all bachelor's degrees in 1970-71, but only 3.9 percent in 2003-4. "If nothing is done to put an end to the process of disintegration, the numbers will continue in a steady downward spiral," he warned. A few weeks ago in these pages, Mark Bauerlein cited similar numbers, concluding, "English has gone from a major unit in the university to a minor one." In November 2010, the MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall remarked with alarm that "students wanting to take up majors like art history and literature are now making the jump to more-specialized fields like business and economics, and it's getting worse." A chart appeared on-screen. "Just look at this," she said. "In 2007 just 8 percent of bachelor's degrees were given to disciplines in the humanities." In 1966 that figure had been 17.4 percent. Read more...