Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 02090171
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED126980 AUTHOR: Cohen, Arthur M.
TITLE: The Faculty and the Humanities: Two Endangered
Species.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1976
NOTE: 19 p.; Keynote address presented to the Western
Humanities Conference (Santa Crus, California, August 18,
1976)
ABSTRACT: The humanities are not emphasized in two-year
colleges, although junior/community colleges enroll over
30%
of all students in post-secondary education. The Center for
the Study of Community Colleges is engaged in a
multi-phased
research project designed to provide information for the
National Endowment for the Humanities, which wishes to
strengthen the humanities in two-year colleges. Two project
phases, including a literature review and a national survey
of humanities faculty, have been completed. The survey
yielded a great deal of information about humanities
faculty. About one-fourth had been students in two-year
colleges. Fourteen percent now hold the Ph.D. or the Ed.D.
The male/female ratio is 2:1 with affirmative action slowly
taking hold. This group has broken almost completely with
the secondary schools. It is believed that humanities
faculty are becoming very insular while being relatively
well satisfied with their present job situations.
Recommendations for strengthening the humanities in
two-year
colleges have developed as a result of seminars held to
discuss the survey data. These include: in-service training
of faculty, dissemination of information through numerous
media, advisory task forces, and conferences. Educators do
not yet realize the dire situation of the humanities but
must take action to insure the humanities' survival without
repeating past mistakes. (JDS)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Community-Colleges;
Humanities-Instruction;
National-Surveys
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *College-Faculty; *Humanities-; *Teacher
Characteristics; *Two-Year-Colleges
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