After a six-month-long review of the Humanities Center (HC), Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Beverly Wendland announced mid-January that the Center will remain open. The neutral committee tasked with reviewing the HC compiled a report detailing three potential alternatives.
According to the first option, the Center could retain its current name but create an undergraduate major and rework the department’s academic focus. The second option would require the Center to change its name to better reflect its academic mission. Lastly, the Center could become exclusively a comparative literature department.
The Editorial Board’s previous stance on the HC still stands, and we commend that the University’s decision to not close the Center. But we also recognize that the Humanities Center is far from out of the woods. The committee itself stated in the report that its recommendations will be difficult to implement and that the HC could face reevaluation in the future.
The committee acknowledged that the months of uncertainty during the review had “essentially demoralized the entire faculty.” After three reviews, and months of confusion and poor communication from the University, it’s no surprise that the faculty and students are “demoralized.” Threatening another review immediately is no way to rebuild trust between the administration and the HC.
The Editorial Board is taken aback by the committee’s condemnation of protesters in the report. To anyone who has actively followed the HC story, it’s clear that the protests and continued pressure significantly affected the University’s decision. If Dean Wendland had had her way, the Center would have closed. What other force could have pushed her to change her mind? It is grossly unfair and petty of the neutral committee to write that the protesters “harm[ed] their own reputations and that of the university.”
Instead of fessing up to their clear loss, the University has blamed the students and faculty instead of its own poor decision-making for the continued mistrust.
The Editorial Board praises the protesters for fighting to save their institution and encourages them to keep fighting to maintain the Center’s mission and purpose. There will surely be more battles to come, and the Editorial Board encourages all students to stand ready to continue the fight.
