Teacher’s Bookshelf: The Last Professors

Frank Donoghue, The Last Professors. The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities. New York: Fordham University Press, 2008.

A number of books have come out in the last decade addressing the current state of our profession and prophesying about its future. Rarely is the foreseen future an encouraging one, especially for those of us who do our professing in the humanities. Reading The Last Professors, one of the more influential of the recent crop, was like jumping into a cold pond on a morning in late October—bracing enough to wake you up fast, but not shocking enough to kill your spirit completely.

According to Donoghue—and, unfortunately, this book’s claims are well documented—things look grim out there for the future of Ph.D.’s in traditional humanities departments. The tenure system is eroding quickly; for-profit universities, which rarely offer their clients a non-technical course beyond English 101, are on the rise; only 16% of today’s students fall into the traditional age bracket (18-22 years old); less than 10% of undergraduates today major in any of the humanities.

Come to the Community-Based Learning Open House!

The new Office of Community-Based Learning is hosting an Open House to introduce itself to faculty and community partners.

Wednesday, September 23, 3-5 in the Cleary Dining Hall

There will be light refreshments and a chance to meet the CBL staff, new & old faculty, as well as many community partners from the southeastern Massachusetts area.

If you have any questions, please contact Kate Rafey, krafey@stonehill.edu or 508-565-1959

 

Hope to see you there!

 

“Spirituality, Liberal Learning, and College Student Engagement”

The Teagle Foundation has established a new blog for discussing undergraduates’ engagements with religion, both in and outside the classroom. To read more about the blog’s development, go here. And the blog itself is located at:

http://www.teaglefoundation.org/liblog/default.aspx?bid=3

The Foundation’s website also has links to a 2006 essay written by George Kuh (who will be the keynote at the NEFDC conference listed below under “SOTL Conferences in November”). An excerpt from Kuh’s essay, “Spirituality, Liberal Learning, and College Student Engagement” is below:

“Our analyses revealed three noteworthy patterns:

1. Students who frequently engage in spirituality-enhancing practices also participate more in a broad cross-section of collegiate activities. [. . .]

2. Institutional mission and campus culture matter more to spirituality and liberal learning outcomes than most other institutional characteristics. [. . .]

3. Students at faith-based colleges engage in spiritual practices more and gain more in this area, but participate less often in certain other activities associated with liberal education outcomes.”

Read Kuh’s essay in its entirety here.