The BannerMarymount Students, Faculty, and Alumni Protest Proposal to Cut Nine Majors and 1 Masters Program. Five of these Majors from the School of Humanities.
Written by: Catherine Young
Photography by: Catherine Young
If you still believe that the Humanities needs to be saved at our university, please come out to join us on Wednesday, March 1st, in front of the Main House at 12:00pm for our last peaceful protest. The administration will be reconvening at this time, to further discuss these decisions since the students and faculty had such pushback to this decision.
Marymount University students, faculty, and alumni gathered on Thursday, February 23 at 2 p.m. to peacefully protest the University’s proposal to cut nine bachelor’s degrees and one master’s degree. This includes Theology and Religious Studies, English, and History, Philosophy, Art, Sociology, Math, and the M.A. in English & Humanities. The university community has been vocal in expressing their concern to administration by speaking with local news stations, and signing a petition with more than 2,000 signatures. This was ahead of the Board of Trustees vote on Friday morning.
Gathering on the fifth floor of the Ballston campus building, the group held signs that were seen by the Board of Trustees members as they went to their committee meetings ahead of the vote on Friday. Some of the signs said, “Side with the teachers,” “Not Fair Not Inclusive,” and “Save Our Majors.” Marymount security guards were present at the end of the hallway, and a reporter from the Falls Church News Press came to interview the group.
Alumni have been very concerned over the proposal, including Amanda Bourne, who came to the protest holding a sign that said, “Humanities majors make the world a smarter and more compassionate place.” She graduated from Marymount in 2016 with an English major and a Theology minor. “The humanities at Marymount gave me everything that I needed to really succeed.” Now she works as an Episcopalian priest part-time and a librarian full-time. “I didn’t anticipate going to seminary afterwards, but that ended up being my call.” Because of her major in English, she was able to “navigate that degree easier.” Matthew Shuman also joined as a member of the Class of 2014 with a major in Criminal Justice. He worries that, “if my alma-mater continues down this route, then I fear that my degree will be worthless” and “water-down the value of my degree.”
Dr. Holly Karapetkova is a professor of English at Marymount, and the Poet Laureate of Arlington Country. She has been especially vocal, calling this proposal “terrible” and “shocking.” The majors are “really important to the mission of the school. Our students are amazing people; they’re a small group, but a really important group on campus, and they contribute so much to our community.” She mentioned the Faculty Council’s counterproposal with the majority two-thirds vote that would save the school as much money as the original proposal but kept the majors. Since the liberal arts core classes would still exist, “the cost savings were going to be very minimal.”
Many students are expressing their feelings towards this decision. “I am really shocked, angered, disappointed,” said Bella Heick, a senior majoring in English. “I’m shocked for the school.” While students can finish their major regardless, she feels that “the value of their degree is decreasing exponentially, because it’s coming from a school that decided to cut them.” The second I’m getting my degree; it goes down in value,” she says, while also expressing concern that Marymount is “turning into a trade school.”
Grace Kapacs helped organize the protest on Thursday, and the one on Friday morning just before the Board made their vote. Although her major in communication is not getting cut, she expressed why she is protesting. “I love Marymount. Marymount has given me so much, and I want to give back.” Since she does not think this decision is best for her school, she is fighting because “who else is if students aren’t going to?”
After two days of protests, The Board of Trustees and the President of the University made the final decision to cut these programs on Friday morning. Here are some of the many statements made by students, alumni and faculty moments before the decision was made.
“I am proud to work at a Catholic liberal arts university that serves God by serving students. It’s unthinkable to eliminate majors in the humanities which are extensively majors in the liberal arts. I don’t see how we can be a Catholic liberal arts institution without majors in religious studies and English and Mathematics. I am here to support my daughter and I’m here to support students. Save our majors and save the Humanities.” – Dr. Michelle Gaffey, Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Marymount University.
“I am very involved on campus and I’m on the board of three clubs…president of one of those. I am a member of the Men’s Volleyball team… [ and a] criminal justice major so this doesn’t affect me. I am the senator for the class of 2025, I’m in SGA. So I feel like while this does not directly affect me, my class members voted for me to have this position so I feel like I have an obligation to step up and speak for them. The only comment that I have is that I wish the school would focus on transparency and getting student input before it’s too late. I feel like too often they view student government as an obstacle or even a burden instead of a resource. We are here to be the body between them and the students that we can represent. We only heard about this, it was brought to our attention, maybe like a week ago. What can you do in a week? Just as a school, we’ve done this, we have administration with us, over 2,000 signatures on our petition. I think that’s huge but I wish the school would utilize administration as a resource and not a burden. This is discouraging.” – Nick Blose, SGA senator for class of 2025, Criminal Justice Major.
“I am here for the second protest today because I believe Humanities majors should continue to be an option for students. Humanities, all of these majors, small though they be, should be continued as an option for students. in part because I think it’s irresponsible for the university to be making these decisions to cut majors in an employment landscape that is actively changing. One of the things that we are seeing now is lay-offs in the tech industry. That market is laying off many people with experience. It makes me wonder what kind of majors Marymount is looking to grow into that would actually give students jobs in the face of a changing employment landscape. I think the current decision is not forward thinking or future sighted, it’s based on a boom of the past 10 or 20 years that is changing before our eyes.”
– Amanda Bourne, Alumni of 2016 with an English major and a Theology minor.
“Four out of the five humanities majors are being considered for closure and I am very concerned about this. I can tell you that the faculty do not support this plan and in Faculty Council, we voted 104 against this plan and 39 in favor of it. So you can see that is over 2/3rds of the faculty oppose this plan. This also means that there is faculty from every college and every school that opposes this plan and the faculty is very concerned about why we are continuing with it; why it’s moving forward. Faculty counsel did not approve this. I am very concerned as to why it’s being pushed ahead, we have not been given sufficient data as to why it’s being pushed ahead. I strongly object to these proposed cuts. I am very proud of the SGA for being transparent with the students. It’s really unfortunate that actual administrators in the university did not deliver this message to the students and they actually found out from other students. I think that this came as a surprise to the students which I think is also a major problem with the entire process that students have not been consulted along the way. Marymount is here for our students, that’s what we are here for. I don’t understand why our students have not been consulted along the way. It affects them, it affects their future, it affects the reputation of the university. So, I really think students should have been consulted all throughout this process and then the students should have been given a data informed message from the administration as to why this is being done.” – Ariane Economos, Humanities Director.
“It’s also important to note that faculty drafted an amendment to the proposed cuts, which would have allowed for similar financial savings while preserving nearly all of the humanities majors. The majority of faculty members voted in favor of this amendment, but it was still struck down by the administration. This makes me wonder what these cuts are really about. It seems to me that the heart and soul of Marymount University is in question.”
– Dr. Michelle Gaffey, Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Marymount University.
If you still believe that the Humanities needs to be saved at our university, please come out to join us on Wednesday, March 1st, in front of the Main House at 12:00pm for our last peaceful protest. The administration will be reconvening at this time, to further discuss these decisions since the students and faculty had such pushback to this decision.
