I am devastated to see what is happening to my alma mater @IUPedu, a terrific, teaching-centered institute of higher education that serves, in particular, rural Pennsylvanians. Departments cut, others "retrenched," with the end result, it seems, the death of liberal arts https://twitter.com/PittsburghPG/status/1316519315617787905

I learned so much from the brilliant, dynamic professors in the history department. I had the honor of visiting twice last year; these faculty still work tirelessly to provide an incredible education for IUP students. Now, it looks like they're losing 1/3 of the tenured faculty

I know this is happening to higher ed all over. It is a response to problems that predated COVID. But my own pain about IUP aside, it is disheartening that the common response to financial trouble is to cut liberal arts. The presumption, of course, is that they aren't profitable.

Many others more thoughtful than I have written about the deep, structural, problems of the corporatization of the university, in which decisions about programs are made based upon profitability and demand alone. I won't retread their great arguments here.

But what IUP's "retrenchment" makes me feel viscerally is that IUP, and higher ed in general, sees disciplines like history as less valuable, and not worth providing to students who go to schools like IUP. Those students don't need or deserve historical knowledge.

What does it say, when we deem historical knowledge something that only those who attend certain wealthy colleges get to posess? We are saying that history is only for a small number of elites; its not for attendees of colleges like IUP, who serve primarily first-gen students.

I'll scream until I can't scream anymore: HISTORY IS VALUABLE. I could point out history grad salaries rival those of business majors, but THATS NOT THE POINT. Historical knowledge should be something we ALL participate in, and historical literacy should be a skill we all have

Anyway, #saveiup and in particular, save its liberal arts.