Another troubling sign of the times.

UPDATE:  Ken Aizawa, a philosopher at Centenary College (which is discussed in the linked article), writes:

I'm a philosophy professor at Centenary College and I'm writing to you to note that it seems to me that the extensive discussion of Latin at Centenary in the IHE article does not seem to be a good example of the assault on humanities.  By this, I mean that Centenary's program changes are not, it seems to me, a case of the humanities suffering disproportionately in tough economic times.  It is true that the Latin, Spanish, German and Ancient and Modern Languages majors have been eliminated and this makes for a very sad day for Centenary.  On the other hand, of the 22 of our 44 majors that are being eliminated, those were the only humanities majors eliminated. Philosophy, in particular, remains.  Here is the list of the program revisions.  I think that, to a first approximation, what has happened is that pre-professional programs, such as those in education, music performance, and business have been set aside in favor of majors in the arts and sciences.  (Part of what makes this an approximation is the depressing loss of the physics major.)  But, were I to write the story of Centenary in these tough economic times, it would be about a college bucking a trend to devalue the humanities.  It would be a story about a college trying to go back to core educational values.  How often does it happen that a college eliminates majors in Accounting and Finance and keeps a major in Philosophy?