To the Editor:
Your article points to the cuts to arts programs at universities and colleges in the United States. I taught for years in the United States before moving to Canada, where similar cuts are occurring, though I would not characterize them as a “nip here” and an “adjust there.” It’s more like a slash here, a burn there.
These cuts are a symptom of a much larger problem, namely that higher education is becoming increasingly streamlined to fit into the demands of the economy, either in terms of conducting basic research that can be exploited for financial gain or by producing competent employees and managers to fill what positions the economy can still provide.
This in turn is a symptom of a larger problem in the world as a whole: all that matters any longer is what can earn money and what can lead to a job.
Of course, those departments where ideas are taught that challenge the unquestioned primacy of work and profit—those pesky humanities and arts departments—are first in line for the biggest cuts, so fewer and fewer students will be exposed to truly challenging ideas.
Christopher Pavsek
Vancouver, British Columbia, Aug. 10, 2009
The writer is an assistant professor of film at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University.
Note from KBJ: God forbid anybody should be concerned with earning money or getting a job. Does the letter writer realize that "work and profit" make humanities and arts departments possible? Perhaps if he had less scorn for hard-working taxpayers and entrepreneurs, they would be more willing to subsidize his leisurely life.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 