The End of ASU West Humanities
On the ASU West campus there is a statue of Wisdom. Or at least that’s what you think it is as you approach. It is a woman in a robe holding out an open book. But when you get closer you see that there is no woman—the robe is empty. And you look at the book and it only has blank pages. This is the perfect symbol for the humanities at ASU West. They give the appearance of wisdom but as you look closer you see there is nothing there—it is completely empty.
It came not with a bang, but with a whimper. Gasping out its last breaths, all alone in the dusty desert. What could have been a great interdisciplinary humanities department was instead mismanaged by directors and boards of advisors for two decades. Having pushed racial hatred, sexual bigotry, and anti-Christian decolonizing philosophy, it was dealt its final blow this week. It has been measured, judged, and found wanting.
No longer can ASU West claim to be the small liberal arts college with ASU where your student will be given special attention by their humanities professors. Instead, ASU West humanities classes will all have a cap of 60 students. You read that right—the student-to-faculty ratio in 100 and 200 level classes is 60 to 1. Let’s look at some historical facts to see if indeed we can objectively conclude that ASU West humanities is over for all intents and purposes.
Twenty-five years ago, when I began teaching at ASU West, I was actually teaching for Glendale Community College, which offered classes at ASU West. Glendale offered the 100- and 200-level classes, whereas ASU faculty offered the 300- and 400-level classes. Glendale was able to offer a cap of 30 or fewer students. The classes I taught had around 10-15 students. The students received a great education because of this student to faculty ratio.
Then ASU decided it would take over the 100- and 200-level classes. I was hired by ASU in 2000. The exact identity of ASU West has always been up in the air. What precisely is it? We already have a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. Where does ASU West fit in? The standard narrative has been that ASU West is the little liberal arts college within the largest state university in the country. Situated on a nice quiet, well-manicured campus, ASU West supposedly offered a more personal experience in its humanities classes. And for a little while, that was true.
It began to change around 2006 when there was reorganization by deans who wanted to get rid of departments and save money. At that point, they began experimenting with large classes. However, we still had many small 100- and 200-level classes where a new student could have personal contact with a professor.
As ASU West humanities directors and boards of advisors squandered their money and energy on divisive philosophies, like decolonizing and anti-racism, the department struggled more and more until it was, from any business perspective, completely bankrupt. Many of its majors have zero new students, others less than 5. None of its majors are sustainable. The only reason these classes exist is that they serve other majors outside the humanities in successful programs. ASU West humanities professors offered special events about anti-racism, the vulva, and decolonizing the classroom, and the students fled.
In the past, we collaborated when difficult decisions were needed. We would talk as a department and deal with problems, like needing to offers large-cap classes. I usually volunteered. I didn’t mind—I saw it as a Jocko-esque opportunity to become better through a challenge. But now, all free will and self-determination are gone.
And so, the decision was made to end the dream of a small liberal arts college within ASU. The director and board of advisors, in their wisdom, raised the cap of all 100- and 200-level classes to 60 students. No student will have anything like a liberal arts experience at ASU West.
This is obviously an attempt to deal with financial woes. However, it is framed in terms of equity. Even now, they desperately seize on their DEI philosophy. The caps must be raised so that everybody has equity. And that’s really how these kinds of philosophies work, isn’t it? Read Solzhenitsyn. Whenever the ideologues take over, they reach equity by making everybody suffer equally.
And yet, some of us are less equal than others. Even though you’ll see that 300- and 400-level caps have also gone up as well, some of the leadership enjoys classes with 15 students. It’s the same story you’ve read in every dystopia. Somehow, it’s always different for the “leaders.”
You should pop over to Reddit. The normal people are at the bottom, down voted to oblivion by these leftists. The rest got called out on their discrimination that you called out and folks like the above cannot even see it for themselves. Reverse this and they’d be crying. I think most normal people see it, don’t want it, and hope these views die.
What an incredibly long winded way of saying you’re upset because you may actually have to work at your actual job this semester. Maybe you should fulfill the responsibilities you have to the job that pays you over 100K a year to malign them (you seem to have no problem financially benefitting from this incredible ‘unethical’ and ‘prejudiced’ university. You’ll have to take a break this semester from becoming a conservative darling and actually teach students.
Also for someone who loves to talk about fallacies in other people’s writing, you sure do commit them yourself. You’re smart enough to know that you have presented no evidence that the decline in humanities enrollment has anything to do with the topics humanities professors research - topics that may have value to other people. That’s false cause. I know it’s crazy to think that other people’s academic interests are just as important as yours.
And of course you consider anti-racism to be ‘divisive’. It requires knocking the privileged group down a few notches to help other groups achieve more equity. Of course people on the top don’t want to sacrifice their privilege. Oh that’s right - you’ve been ‘persecuted’ for being a ‘white Christian male’. We all know how hard white Christian males have it in the US.
Oh, and before you say we are cowards because we won’t show our names… we do it this way because we don’t trust your intentions and your desire to engage in actual fruitful debate. We have no interest in ending up on your esteemed Professor Watchlist. If I thought you were interested in having actual conversation, I’d have no problems coming out.
Stop whining. You’re not persecuted. You’re not a martyr. And no one is coming after you.
Oh and everyone’s making fun of you and your absurd lawsuit over on Reddit. People see past your BS. Despite what you think about yourself, you’re no Socrates or Virgil. I’m surprised your inflated ego can fit through ASU’s walls.