Posted on Oct 27, 2023
Miami University students push back against plan to shrink the humanities department
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Students at Miami University are speaking out after the university's provost announced intentions to shrink the humanities department and combine some of its majors due to low enrollment.
Provost Elizabeth Mullenix informed faculty in the department of the situation before the start of the semester and asked them to help develop a plan to keep some of its humanities majors alive.
Since then, the future of humanities at Miami has remained a mystery, according to students on campus who say they only found out about the situation through the university's student news outlet the Miami Student, which reported on the plan in late September.
The move puts majors like art history, critical race and ethnic studies, and Latin American studies in jeopardy, which inspired students from Miami's Latiné Student Alliance to speak out.
Provost Elizabeth Mullenix informed faculty in the department of the situation before the start of the semester and asked them to help develop a plan to keep some of its humanities majors alive.
Since then, the future of humanities at Miami has remained a mystery, according to students on campus who say they only found out about the situation through the university's student news outlet the Miami Student, which reported on the plan in late September.
The move puts majors like art history, critical race and ethnic studies, and Latin American studies in jeopardy, which inspired students from Miami's Latiné Student Alliance to speak out.
Miami University students push back against plan to shrink the humanities department
Posted from wvxu.org
Miami University
College
Posted 7 mo ago
Responses: 2
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Still, students like Olivia Thomas, who is pursuing three majors in Latin American studies, international studies, and Spanish, say while small in size, these majors have a huge impact on campus life, especially for minority students.
"A lot of complaints from students within these majors are that these majors, specifically LAS [Latin American Studies] is the only representation that we see of ourselves within the faculty on Miami's campus," Thomas told WVXU. "Miami claims to want to work toward diversity and promote a lot of different viewpoints, but by cutting these they're kind of undermining that message."
Rather than eliminate them, Thomas wants to see the university promote these programs in the same way it does other majors. She says she only found out about the Latin American studies major through word-of-mouth from her professor. She claims if she only paid attention to the university's marketing, she would have never known about it. With some help, she says the humanities can grow at Miami.
"It's kind of a circular issue of 'Oh these are low enrolled, also but we're not going to promote them,' " Thomas said.
WVXU reached out to Provost Mullenix and Miami's communication staff for comment but did not get a response.
Miami University is expected to make a decision on the matter in December."
..."Still, students like Olivia Thomas, who is pursuing three majors in Latin American studies, international studies, and Spanish, say while small in size, these majors have a huge impact on campus life, especially for minority students.
"A lot of complaints from students within these majors are that these majors, specifically LAS [Latin American Studies] is the only representation that we see of ourselves within the faculty on Miami's campus," Thomas told WVXU. "Miami claims to want to work toward diversity and promote a lot of different viewpoints, but by cutting these they're kind of undermining that message."
Rather than eliminate them, Thomas wants to see the university promote these programs in the same way it does other majors. She says she only found out about the Latin American studies major through word-of-mouth from her professor. She claims if she only paid attention to the university's marketing, she would have never known about it. With some help, she says the humanities can grow at Miami.
"It's kind of a circular issue of 'Oh these are low enrolled, also but we're not going to promote them,' " Thomas said.
WVXU reached out to Provost Mullenix and Miami's communication staff for comment but did not get a response.
Miami University is expected to make a decision on the matter in December."
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