In the back corner of Saint Louis University’s campus sits a rather worn-out building. The outside, adorned with a mural painted in hopes of increasing its curb appeal, hides the poorly air-conditioned, run-down computer lab and two vending machines that routinely steal from their customers.
McGannon Hall houses many humanities subjects at SLU, such as Political Science, International Relations, Women & Gender Studies and the Center for African American Studies. However, these vital fields of study remain crammed into a building from decades past. While SLU continues to promise futures of technological advancement and upgrades to campus facilities, do these promises apply to all buildings and not just the ones focused on said technology?
It must be stated that these funding issues disproportionately impacting the humanities are interconnected with the very political issues that these fields seek to understand. The decrease in international student enrollment, down to just 300 this year compared to the 1,300 anticipated, is directly related to the recent attacks on international student visas by the Trump Administration. With the loss in cash flow caused by the decrease in international students’ tuition, the big promises of renovating buildings and increasing funding for the humanities are likely to fall short. It is ironic that the studies that seek to understand and prevent the rise of xenophobia and fascism are being undercut by that very same rhetoric we see in America today.
However, this issue is not new, and we can trace its origins back to the prioritization of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) during the Cold War. The Soviet success of Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite, swept through America, instilling a fear that we were falling behind in technology and prompting a transformation of the education system to prioritize STEM disciplines.
Furthermore, as this rise of capitalist propaganda took hold, the commodification of education transformed the view of universities from a place of higher education to that of pre-professional and degree-machine institutions. The common rhetoric of wasteful humanities degrees, that these degrees will leave you poorly compensated, reveals the much larger problem of how we view careers that stand outside the capitalist machine. Therefore, degrees in STEM that can be seen as profit-makers and prepare one for a job in line with the capitalist agenda of money-making and production are prioritized in today’s society.
But how does this relate to the sad-looking McGannon Hall? We can see that this discourse around the money-making potential of certain degrees directly impacts how universities and colleges treat their respective fields of study, professors and students.
While the example of McGannon may seem silly or superficial, it draws attention to this larger issue of how universities prioritize different degrees and where those priorities are coming from. Universities are places of higher learning and should not be beholden to these capitalistic ideals of production. They should be focused on the development of all students and fields of research, even those that do not take place in a chemistry lab. The humanities are critical. Not only for their impact on politics or philosophy, but for how they draw people together through thought, music and art.
Often it feels like your university does not truly care about you, or your degree, and while that may be true, hold fast to your professors and peers who understand the importance of your work and studies.
If there is one thing the humanities know best, it is community. Through conversation and the arts, the field of the humanities draws people of all walks of life together. While the advancements in STEM must not be downplayed, the work of the humanities to facilitate discourse and connect people must be recognized and appreciated. To all students and scholars in the field of humanities: even if you are stuck in the back corner of your school with no air conditioning or working computers, your work is important. The people who really matter are those around you. Those who are working with you to help better the world in often invisible, but significant ways.