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Professor Casey McGill teaching first year composition, an English class required for all students.
Over the course of my time studying English at St. Scholastica, I have become increasingly disappointed in the quality of my education.
Three years ago, the English department had around fifteen faculty members. Now, in my senior year, there are only five full-time professors which means there are often not enough course offerings for English students to fulfill requirements.
By the time students reach their senior year, they should be refining their skills in major-specific, specialized courses. Instead, many humanities professors are spread thin. A major contributing factor to this is because they are required to teach Veritas classes, which in some cases seem to be tailored towards the Health Sciences.
An example of this is within the English department, where 60% of the Veritas Integrations Literature courses offered Spring 2026 are healthcare-focused. Those courses are: Trauma & Recovery: Medicine, Health, Medicine, & Social Justice, and Autobiographies Women in Health. Furthermore, of the 15 English courses offered Spring 2026 only about 53% of the listed courses are neither healthcare-related nor First Year Composition.
The college advertised itself as a liberal arts school. Yet, Veritas courses are made to fit the schedule of a student in the health sciences specifically, which leaves students in smaller departments scrambling to find the credits they need. For students paying the same tuition as those in heavily funded programs, it’s hard not to feel shortchanged.
This is not an isolated experience. The Chicano Literature course Bushman and I are both taking has to count towards upper divisions, even though it isn’t an upper division course
“It’s just frustrating that there wasn’t a different option,” said Bushman.
These shortages aren’t just an inconvenience. They undermine the entire purpose of a liberal arts education. When students can’t take classes that align with their interests or degree needs, the quality of their education is severely compromised.
Even professors have noticed this shift. “The more consistent challenge at CSS is the administrative and marketing prioritization of Nursing and the health professions as the core of our strategy and public face as an institution. That’s okay—we need nurses—but it also reveals some of the specific challenges in the institutional culture at CSS,” said Dr. Tim Lorek, who teaches in the history, global sustainability, and political science departments. Lorek also added, “We have faculty regularly teaching outside of their specialty areas, or we make up the gaps with part-time adjuncts. This is bad for everyone—it means there are fewer stable jobs for humanities professors and fewer opportunities for students to connect with mentors who are fully part of the community,”
This pattern has left me and my fellow humanities students feeling ignored by the college.
“That’s kind of what our school’s advertising is. It’s a nursing school, and I think that’s where we get a lot of our money, which is good, but it does kind of leave the rest of the smaller majors in the dark,” said Bushman.
Sean Reagan, a senior English major shares the same feeling.
“It’s difficult to call yourself a liberal arts college when you are more so focused on the health and human services aspect of college. And if that’s the direction they want to go in, that’s a direction to go in, but then calling themselves a liberal arts college seems like a misnomer,” Reagan said.
This is about more than just course offerings or coursework. It’s about the kind of society we want to live in.
“We live in a period of significant anxiety and uncertainty. I think the humanities provide an anchor for communities seeking authentic human interactions and connections. If we lose this, I seriously worry about becoming unmoored as a society in a sea of corporate tech branding and political manipulation,” said Lorek.
Losing the humanities is not an issue isolated to St. Scholastica. According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in humanities disciplines fell nearly 37% between 2012 and 2022.
What makes this loss so disappointing is that the humanities offer something that extends far beyond career preparation.
“The humanities is going to put value on your life outside of your career. One day you’re going to have a job, a family, but you’re still going to have existential questions about happiness and meaning and death. It’s important to learn how to ask those questions now,” said Dr. Andrew Taylor, a professor of religious studies.
A liberal arts education helps to foster critical thinking and empathy, not just workforce readiness. When the humanities fade into the background, we lose a crucial part of what makes that education so meaningful and impactful. I don’t deny the importance of the healthcare programs–they are vital and deserve support–but so do the disciplines that ask us to explore who we are, what we value, and how we live.
By: Lily McCarthy
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