Humanities Dies
A poster showing reasons to keep a Humanities major.
By: Molly Moshka
As was listed on the interdisciplinary degree on the academics page of the Waldorf College website, the Humanities can be described as the study of people of one culture and cultures from past generations, relating to each other around the world.
While studying humanities at Waldorf, students learn skills through a wide variety of liberal arts courses that focus on developing critical thinking skills, writing and research skills to prepare them for the real world. The skills gained through such courses could be very attractive to some employers.
Unfortunately for Waldorf students, and possibly many other schools throughout the United States, the federal government has a different view about humanities. As of July 1st, 2014, the Federal IV has decided to stop offering financial assistance to the Humanities BA program, forcing many students to change their majors.
“I am very upset,” Lauren Schryver, a senior at Waldorf who was a Humanities major said. “It’s my senior year and I went through many degrees, going from being a Wellness major to figuring out Humanities was the degree for me. Then it gets cut, so I am very bummed.”
According to Waldorf’s Academic Dean David Behling, who taught classes and was the coordinator for the BA program from 2009 to 2013, the Department of Education told Waldorf they could not fund the Humanities BA program because of certain numbers the program must have in order to offer money.
“Every major has a SOC code and CIP code that define a program in order for the government to provide financial assistance,” Behling states. “The Humanities BA here at Waldorf had the SOC number, but didn’t have the CIP number.”
There is not much information given about the numbers, but basically Behling stated that a government official in an office somewhere decided that if a school did not have the numbers for a Humanities BA, there is basically no point for students to get a career within the Humanities field.
“I am very irritated by this decision,” Behling says.
“There is so much you can learn in Humanities,” said Lauren Schryver, who now is majoring in Art Management. “It teaches you how to learn to get along with people, about different parts of the human race. People can benefit from it.”
Even though the program will not be seeking any money at Waldorf, there are other programs that fall within the Humanities field such as English, Creative Writing, Theatre, etc. and students can still receive a minor of Humanities.
“It is now the responsibility of the Religion Department if students want to have a Humanities minor,” Behling states.