3. Between 1970-71 and 2003-04, English majors declined from 7.6 to 3.9
percent of the national total, other languages and literatures dropped from
2.5 to 1.3 percent, philosophy and religious studies from 0.9 to 0.7 percent,
and history from 18.5 to 10.7 percent.
4. 300,000
250,000
200,000
Social sciences and history
........................................
150,000 Philosophy and religious studies
..................................
Foreign languages, literatures, and
linguistics .........................
English language and literature/letters
100,000 .......................
50,000
0
5. In the same period, business enrollments increased by 176
percent, and communication studies shot up 616 percent.
6. 400,000
350,000
300,000
Business
250,000
...........................................................
Communication, journalism, and related
programs ..............................................
200,000 English language and literature/letters
.......................
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics
150,000 .........................
Philosophy and religious studies
..................................
Social sciences and history
100,000
........................................
50,000
0
7. 400,000
350,000
300,000
Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies
...................................
250,000 Business ...........................................................
Communication, journalism, and related programs
..............................................
200,000
English language and literature/letters .......................
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics
150,000 .........................
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and
humanities .............................................
100,000 Multi/interdisciplinary studies ................................
Philosophy and religious studies ..................................
50,000
Social sciences and history ........................................
0
8. Barack Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address called for
increased expenditure on research, education, and teachers
of mathematics and science.
He did not mention the humanities.
9. The Republican Party has announced
its desire to exterminate the National
Endowment for the Humanities.
10. The 2009 American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act
The National Science Foundation
received US$3 billion for research.
The National Endowment for the Arts
received $50 million.
It provided not a cent to humanities
research;Unless you count the $14
billion allocated for food stamps –
which increasingly supplement the
income of low-paid humanities
adjuncts.
11. Compared with other fields, tenure-track hiring in language and literature
occurs at two-thirds the national average. In 2009, just 53 percent of humanities
faculty was in full-time employment, and an even smaller proportion in
tenurable positions.
12. In 2003, health academics were paid an average of $6,000 more than in
1987, during which time the humanities average declined by a thousand dollars;
in 2005-06, a business academic cost twice as much as a humanities
one, compared to one and a half times as much twenty years earlier.