To the Editor:
The many books, articles, reports, and discussions about the steep decline of the humanities in higher education, often single out one bright spot: community colleges. As Ted Hadzi-Antich, Jr. argues (“Community College Is the Future of Liberal Education”, The Chronicle Review, October 5, 2023), “The primary function of community colleges in our society has been steadily shifting away from technical and pre-professional education and toward liberal education for some time now. “ And Hadzi-Antich, Jr. is not alone: a wide array of writers — for example, Scott Jaschik, Nathan Heller, Will Bunch, and Gayle Green, and the American Association of Community Colleges make similar claims.
The narrative of a robust community college humanities is quite compelling — it offers hope to those of us who value the humanities and its vital role in sustaining a healthy democracy. Unfortunately, this narrative is false.
A closer examination of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S) and Community College Research Center (CCRC) research — the research frequently cited to support the robust condition of community college humanities — reveals that humanities education at community colleges is in as dire condition as at four-year institutions. As the community college responds to state and federal government policies focused on funding workforce training, and as it aligns curriculum with the purported needs of the business community, humanities courses have become devalued, marginalized, and removed from the curriculum.
How, then, does the research get it wrong?
First, the researchers make a fundamental mistake by including English Composition (the CCCR even includes developmental/remedial English) as a humanities course. That English composition is not traditionally considered a humanities course is something the CCRC’s latest report, Smoothing Pathways, admits:
English Composition I and II are common general education course requirements at community colleges in Michigan and across the U.S. Although they cover material within the field of English, a humanities discipline, these courses are likely to focus on the mechanics of writing and therefore may not expose students to themes in the humanities in the same way that other writing or literature courses do. Accordingly, including composition courses in our humanities analysis may overstate the extent to which community college students take courses in the humanities.
The research does overstate the extent to which community college students take humanities courses.
Community college “English” typically encompasses writing courses. Faculty mostly teach writing, and students are required to complete a college-level writing course. Including writing courses (“English”) inflates the number of humanities courses and the enrollment in those courses: That “English” accounted for “[a]lmost half of all [Humanities/Liberal Arts] credits” is unsurprising considering it is essentially a “service” course for other departments and for A.S. and A.A.S. degree programs.
Furthermore, Smoothing Pathways includes communication as part of the humanities. Communication is often considered part of the social sciences, and, like English composition, should not be considered part of the humanities. Yet, as part of the Michigan Transfer Agreement in the state where I’ve taught for nearly 40 years, (Interpersonal) Communication can now be taken in place of a second semester writing about literature course.
By including English composition and communication in their data as humanities courses, the authors inflate the number of “humanities” courses being completed, and mistakenly portray the humanities as much healthier than they actually are.
Second, AAA&S and CCRC researchers claim the humanities are robust based on the quantity of students enrolled in humanities courses — but even this argument is suspect. Both the CCRC and AAA&S report that among all students, including transfer students, very few community college students take “HLA” courses, particularly in core humanities courses including history and philosophy: “In summary, these findings suggest no obvious deficiency in HLA at community colleges and four-year colleges. Yet it is also the case that most students do not enroll in many HLA courses at community college.” If English composition is excluded, then the number of students enrolling in humanities courses becomes even smaller.
Third, AAA&S and CCRC research is often cited as evidence to argue humanities and liberal arts degrees are increasing at community colleges. But this, too, is misleading. Community college students not in A.S. or A.A.S. programs typically do not have a major (a specialized area of study). The Associate of Arts (A.A.) serves as a “catchall” degree for humanities, liberal arts, and general education, and includes students intending to transfer and major in degrees not in the humanities or liberal arts. For example, a student interested in earning a four-year degree in business or computer science could graduate with an A.A. degree. It is no surprise, then, that the CCRC reported that “few Michigan community college students [who transfer] earn bachelor’s degrees in the humanities.” For those who do graduate and earn a four-year degree, only 14 percent were in English and 6.5 percent in history.
The AAA&S and CCRC’s research is vital to our understanding of community colleges. But it does more harm than good when it promotes and supports the false narrative of a robust community college humanities.
Keith Kroll
Instructor, English Department
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
