Posted on 01/11/2026 4:40:20 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
In an undated post regarding admissions to graduate arts and sciences programs for the 2026–27 academic year, Boston University indicated that the history of art and architecture program was not admitting candidates, along with American studies, anthropology, religion, and romance studies programs. In November 2024, meanwhile, the school had already indicated that its department of the history of art and architecture would not accept Ph.D. students for the next academic year, according to a report from Inside Higher Education. In an email obtained by the publication, the heads of the College of Arts and Sciences, which includes the art history department, “pointed to increased costs associated with the union contract that graduate student workers won after their historic, nearly seven-month strike ended in October.”
But Inside Higher Education noted that there was an effort already underway before the union contract, as noted in an email obtained from deans, to “right-size” doctoral cohorts, “considering such factors as selectivity in admissions, student success, job prospects and placements, standing and reputation of the program, etc.” ...
The Harvard Crimson reported in October that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences would cut the number of Ph.D. student admissions in the arts and humanities division, which includes the department of the history of art and architecture, by about 60 percent for the next two years.
(Excerpt) Read more at artnews.com ...
Regarding Romance languages...
When universities were founded...it was requirement that you had to be able to read and speak LATIN (and Greek.)
As your studies would include the foundational works by classical authors like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in their original languages etc...
Plus some Hebrew thrown in to study the Bible in depth...(Old Testament being primarily Hebrew, New Testament being Greek.)
“ It’s amazing to me that private universities with endowments larger than the GDP’s of most countries get state funding at all.”
There’s no Constitutional authorization for any of it, not from the Feds anyway.
L
Sorry, I had a feeling they were talking about Greek and Latin, but I was trying to make a joke - and it failed.
Agreed.
The universities have become horse and buggies—and the horses are old and ready to croak.
—Leftist ideology and propaganda creates a “leftist bubble” that undermines Western values
—Anti white hatred is widespread
—No freedom of speech or ideas
—The “credential” of being a graduate is over-rated and is of minimal or even negative value
—90% of students have no business doing college work
—Poor job prospects for many graduates
—Inflated administrative costs and bureaucracy
—Peer review means everything is “stuck” while old professors censor and deplatform new ideas
—Most academic papers are useless garbage
—Far too expensive for the value they offer
—Student loans are a budgetary disaster for the taxpayer
Most of these institutions need to be closed since it is easier than trying to reduce their size gradually. Their day has come and gone.
New institutions need to be created from scratch to meet the real needs of society.
My family member was an art major. She took a welding class. She ended up in marketing.
Back when I was hiring employees, if someone had shown up with an Art History degree, I’d have laughed my ass off.
No; that’s sort of wrong. Anyone with an Art History degree never would’ve reached the Personal Interview level. It screams, “bad decision maker” and “not a serious person”.
Small private colleges and universities are closing in record numbers so you’re getting your wish in that higher education segment. Unfortunately much of the educational waste and toxic lunacy has migrated over to state supported institutions. State legislatures still fall for “Its for the children!” argument and do little. There is also the problem of “Is Big State U there to educate or provide sports entertainment?”. The public and many in state legislatures seem to support entertainment. If there are land grant universities in their state legislatures have a responsibility to see they fulfil their mission. They don’t both out of ignorance of and indifference to the mission.
The universities that remain are zombies that will not die easily.
As the older generations die out the “mystique” of “higher education” will fade.
We are going to win this one—it is just a matter of time.
The “State University Zombies” will continue to eat brains as long as state legislatures fund it to. There’s no indication that will not continue if not grow.
Right now there is a big circle jerk where universities lobby for funds and then use those funds to lobby for more funds.
That chain can and will be broken—it will just take some time.
Oh i think it means what I think it means, but thanks for the input.
I was raised surrounded by the University of Chicago Great Books of mother’s from her school days, and when I followed her there I had the same type of education from original sources. We didn’t have texts except for some of the hard sciences. We had collected original writings and discussion classes. My major was physics for 3 1/2 years until I joined the 90 percent physics dropouts from my Schroedinger Equations class. Chicago’s only interest was in producing the top researchers. With an extra year, I switched to History of Art/Near Eastern Ancient, which was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I didn’t use either field in my working life. My profession was computer language design. But I’m a complete believer in the value of a wide education to help you grow as a human being. And to this day, Plato’s Symposium on Love is something I quote and revere.
And while I don’t use History of Art per se, I do use many techniques I was taught that required meticulous and thorough analysis. And I have continued my interest in art history by developing music videos that demonstrate the growth of an artist’s style in a way I could have only dreamed of in the days in the library with every finger stuck in a different book. It was the most wonderful major and a class that I’d still recommend to anyone.
“Oh i think it means what I think it means”
So you’re a Chad, not a Simp. Good luck there. Problem is most Chads age-into Simps. At that point the best move is overseas, away from Western civil courts run by female gender-Marxists for whom you are the enemy, their target.
Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I am unfamiliar with the slang that you’re using. FYI, I was in college 35 years ago, and at my university., it seemed like half the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority girls were enrolled in Art History courses. And, sue me, they were attractive young women. That’s it. It’s not more complicated than that.
Other than being a topic of interest to a few people, of what use is Art history as a course of education? For that matter, anything ending in “studies” is suspect as well.
College should be an extension of the good ol’ readin’, writin’ and arithmetic with the addition of science and logic, for a basic degree.
What you’re saying, JimRed runs counter to the original mission of universities in the first place. You are even dismissing the origins of the founding of the very country you are so blessed to be a part of.
Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, the entire Ivy League save for Cornell - were all founded to raise up scholars steeped in the intellectual foundations of Western Civilization. (Namely, the classics of Greece and Rome.)
JUST to be accepted — yes this includes students like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the like — you had to be fluent in Greek and Latin (and for some: Hebrew thrown in for good measure.)
The Ivy League was primarily a seminary system. But it wasn’t limited to aspiring pastors.
The idea was that regardless of your profession, you had to share the same foundations.
Practical job training came about by way of apprenticeships in the ‘real world.’
Which appears to be what many college students are striving to avoid, hiding out in schools and becoming "intellectuals".
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