Liberal Arts under attack

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Liberal Arts under attack

October 12, 2011 by Jon

Here is a story and here might be promise of help.

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Posted in General Interest | 12 Comments

12 Responses

on October 12, 2011 at 8:51 pm | Reply Tim

Gov. Scott should be concerned with what major an individual pursues about as much as he is concerned with what pair of shoes that person buys.
- on October 13, 2011 at 12:51 am | Reply Edgar Aroutiounian
  
  I disagree.
  
  Buying shoes isn’t subsidized by the government.
on October 13, 2011 at 9:23 am | Reply David

What’s the sense about what this might mean for philosophy at state universities in Florida? How much practical damage could he do in what’s left of his term?
on October 13, 2011 at 10:31 am | Reply Aaron

I agree with Edgar. There is something like a supply and demand problem between certain market sectors and educational institutions. For instance, the demand for electrical engineers and computer scientists / technicians is rather high, but the supply is low (thus the higher wages current engineers and computer scientists can demand). If the state could peg market requirements to their admissions process and the price of tuition, then maybe the number of students who major in anthropology, education, or philosophy, e.g., would decrease and more students would be directed to more vocational field because the price of tuition is lower for those areas of study.
- on October 13, 2011 at 1:46 pm | Reply Tim
  
  I anticipated that point being brought up but insofar as my tax dollars contribute to public universities such as UNF, the declared anthropology major/minor rate continues to rise (as it is quite steadily at UNF), and that 89% of the taxpayers of Florida disagrees with Gov. Scott, then I should have the option (along with others) to pursue a degree in Anthropology. If this wasn’t occurring, then I wouldn’t hold as much antipathy towards Gov. Scott’s statement.
  
  As an anthropology major, I feel some contempt towards what Gov. Scott said because I believe he made it out of ignorance; he is probably not familiar with the enormous contributions that Scientific Anthropology has made and probably associates anthropology with the postmodern and interpretive versions that have been steadily sweeping into academic institutions. If this continues to occur, then I probably won’t disagree with him as much in the near future. In fact, this one reason why I have chosen to pursue a different graduate degree.
  - on October 13, 2011 at 8:03 pm Edgar Aroutiounian
    
    I don’t think Scott is saying that he wants to keep you from pursuing anthropology. Rather I think that he doesn’t think that the state should subsidize majors that aren’t exactly being demanded by the marketplace.
  - on October 13, 2011 at 8:04 pm Edgar Aroutiounian
    
    Also, just because anthropology rates of enrollment keep increasing doesn’t mean that it is necessarily wanted. Rather, it could merely be a result of people going back to school during bad times, as always, and getting a degree that is easier to finish than say engineering or chemistry.
    
    The same could be said of a philosophy degree.
  - on October 13, 2011 at 8:15 pm Aaron
    
    Edgar,
    
    Agreed. Neither philosophers, literary critics, nor anthropologists (etc.), create wealth. Rather, philosophers, literary critics, and anthropologists (etc.) rely upon wealth producers to provide, via either tax revenue or endowments, an environment- usually an academic environment- conducive to academic pursuits. Scholarships, grants, financial aid, academic salaries, etc., all come from market producers; we really must keep this in mind.
on October 13, 2011 at 8:09 pm | Reply Aaron

Tim,

You say ‘I should have the option (along with others) to pursue a degree in Anthropology,’ but why should the state subsidize an area of study with a low rate of return? If you want to study anthropology, fine, but you should have to pay for it. If the state is to subsidize education at all, they should attempt to do so in a rational manner- particularly during economic downturns- which amounts to subsidizing areas of study that have a higher rate of return (e.g., nursing, computer science, engineering, medical school, etc.) and reducing state funds to the humanities.
- on October 14, 2011 at 1:51 pm | Reply Tim
  
  Aaron and Edgar,
  
  Your points are well noted and I do sympathize with them.
  
  Anthropologists are often recruited for by the government, namely by the military, CIA (there was some on campus a few weeks ago), and to some extent DEA (and other law enforcement). Anthropologists are now being recruited in the private sector (it seems to be steadily rising), which is where the greatest economic return occurs for such degree. BAs in Anthropology, I might argue, make up a notable percentage of jobs in the private sector because of the skills one learns such as quantitative, qualitative (ethnographic), and GPR skills to name a few. I would need to look at some data though before I solidify that position.
  
  Re: “why should the state subsidize an area of study with a low rate of return?”
  
  Certainly the state subsidizes anthropology least of all the sciences? I’m fairly confident that not all sciences are funded equally. You might want to look at the pay-grade of one the anthropology faculty compared to one of the faculty of the sociology dept. (of the same position, e.g. assistant prof.) There is to my knowledge a notable difference. Therefore, the university seems to some extent, account for your complaint.
  - on October 14, 2011 at 2:02 pm Tim
    
    I might add that anthropology doesn’t belong to the humanities, or at least in the way that art, literary criticism, etc. do. Though, I can think of a few faculty who would balk at this statement…I am devoted to keeping anthropology a science.
    
    Again though, I am not confident that it will be and that is one reason why I have chosen a different graduate degree. Universities have begun to split cultural anthropology from biological anthropology. This may prove to be the end of traditional American four-field Anthropology
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