Category Archives: Liberal

Brookline has always considered itself special. And, in many ways, it is.

Originally a rural retreat for Massachusetts ruling class, the town sprang to life when a Gilded Age speculator brought a trolley line to Beacon Street and invited famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to transform what had been a country lane into a fashionable boulevard.

Then as now, convenient transit was a draw. Brownstones and apartment buildings rose up to accommodate early commuters, and generations of young professionals followed. With three branches of the Green Line, Brookline became a streetcar suburb like no other, providing easy proximity to the regions top colleges, hospitals, and the Financial District.

Green Line commuters arrived at Coolidge Corner Station, one of many stops along three trolley lines that come to Brookline. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

It is a vibrant and varied community, one that broadcasts an ethos of inclusivity: Outside Town Hall, a rainbow-striped crosswalk leads to a Black Lives Matter sign so enormous, it might be the name of the building.

But the towns history on zoning has long broadcast a very different message one of exclusion. Brookline has become a preserve for the privileged, with homes priced out of reach for many who want to live here, including children raised in town and hoping to make their adult home here and many of its municipal employees. Housing built to be affordable is also in short supply; the local inventory falls slightly below the 10 percent threshold set by the state anti-snob zoning law.

And, notwithstanding that big Town Hall sign, there are comparatively few Black people who live in Brookline just 2.5 percent of the population. That is the second-lowest percentage of any community that borders Boston and Brookline doesnt just border Boston; it is enveloped by the city.

Brookline, like many suburbs, has been fending off multifamily housing construction for decades, exacerbating a regional housing shortage that has spiraled out of control, with many more jobs created than houses built. That puts huge upward pressure on prices, which have far outstripped the means of most buyers. Its an opportunity gap with deep roots and far-reaching economic effects a crisis hard for existing homeowners to feel, much less worry about, as their own properties grow ever more valuable. The journey on Zillow seems only to go up.

In Brookline, a town of about 63,000 residents, data show that residential construction plunged 50 years ago, after residents balked at the density of new apartment complexes being developed and dialed back height limits for new buildings.

In the ensuing decades, those who already lived in Brookline effectively kept others out by creating historic preservation districts, filing lawsuits against developments, and endorsing zoning changes that limit growth and preserve value.

This sort of exclusionary playbook has been used throughout much of Massachusetts, where home prices have risen faster since 1980 than in any other state. The median selling price for single-family homes in Greater Boston climbed to a record $910,000 in July, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. That would barely buy a condo in Brookline, where the median price hit $927,500 this summer. For single-family homes, the number was more than double that $2.5 million, data from The Warren Group show.

Brookline offers a striking case study in the depth of suburban resistance to change. But it is no cookie-cutter suburb. The northern part of Brookline has a decidedly urban feel, filled with apartment buildings built decades before the town reined in housing development. Though its southern portion is dominated by luxe mansions and lush lawns, this is the rare suburb that has more multifamily units than single-family homes. Brookline also stands out nationally for its liberal reputation, with leaders often making pronouncements related to climate change and social justice.

It is, in short, the kind of community one might think would welcome a historic new state law requiring more multifamily homes to be allowed near transit lines to help relieve the regions dire housing shortfall. But over the past year, the state law has spurred intense resistance in Brookline as in some other towns facing the same pressure. Opponents here resented both the imposition of a rigid mandate by the state and its judgmental implication: That Brookline, no ordinary suburb, is part of the problem.

We have mad, mad, crazy amounts of multifamily housing. Were not Sprawlsville, said Linda Olson Pehlke, a resident and urban planner who led much of the early opposition.

We have mad, mad, crazy amounts of multifamily housing. Were not Sprawlsville.

A competing faction of housing advocates is pushing for Brookline to welcome as much housing as possible. One of their rallying cries: Many of the people who protect and serve Brookline cant even live here.

The local schools are a well-earned source of pride, but then theres this: Only 14 percent of Brookline teachers live in town, according to municipal data provided to the Globe. The median salary of a public school educator doesnt come close to what homeownership in Brookline demands.

Similarly, only 21 percent of Brooklines police officers and 22 percent of firefighters reside here.

Not even the fire chief lives in Brookline.

I would have moved to Brookline if it was economically viable, said John F. Sullivan, who lives in Worcester, where he worked for three decades. When he took over as chief in 2018, Sullivan recalled, only one of Brooklines department heads lived in town, and that was someone who had inherited a family home.

Colby Tinsley played jazz on Harvard Street in Coolidge Corner. Many residents want to preserve the neighborhoods eclectic style. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

Struck by the changing demographics, many renters and young parents are pushing Brookline to be part of a regional housing solution by embracing more development at all price points to alleviate demand. Those advocates have been showing up to enthusiastically support proposals at zoning meetings and offer a seldom-heard yes-in-my-backyard message.

Their intense, coordinated campaign has led to a potential compromise with the opposing side that, if it holds, could lead to hundreds of new housing units in the years to come.

With a key town vote expected as early as this month and a state deadline at the end of this year, Brookline has become a litmus test of suburbs willingness to help reckon with the regional crisis.

I know that the world is watching Brookline, said Judi Barrett, a planner who consults for the town.

An air of exceptionalism has always hung over Brookline, a suburb described as an island of privilege surrounded on three sides by Boston neighborhoods in one book chronicling its development.

Brookline had a sense of its otherness, its specialness, from really the late 18th century onward, said Keith N. Morgan, lead author of Community By Design and a Boston University professor emeritus.

Brookline refused to be annexed by the city of Boston 150 years ago this year, distinguishing itself from Roxbury, Dorchester, Charlestown, Brighton, West Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain. That left the town an island of Norfolk County floating between Suffolk and Middlesex counties. On the map, it makes no sense, but the town chose to remain apart.

One of the nations first streetcar suburbs, Brookline was early on dubbed the Garden of Boston, and the richest town in the world. Olmsted, who designed Central Park and Bostons Emerald Necklace, was among the wealthy notables who set down roots here, along with his friend and collaborator Henry Hobson Richardson, the architect who designed Bostons Trinity Church; art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner; and financial publisher Henry V. Poor the P in Wall Streets S & P.

Brookline Village, or Village Square, was the earliest hub for retail in Brookline. This 1915 photo shows the stretch of Washington Street looking west to what is now Route 9. (Photo by F.B. Smith, courtesy of National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site)

Harvard Street was built as the road to the colleges, and the town has always attracted intellectuals and academics. Today, educational attainment is so high here that a bachelors degree is just an appetizer. More than 40 percent of residents over 25 have masters or professional degrees (like M.D.s and J.D.s). And over 16 percent hold PhDs a share higher than any community in the state, except the college towns of Amherst and Williamstown, according to census surveys.

For all of its prosperity, extreme inequality was evident early on in Brookline, as were exclusionary tactics. One of the nations earliest examples of a racially restrictive covenant comes from an 1855 deed for a property near the Longwood Mall, a park near the Riverway, that prohibited the buyer from renting it to tanners, butchers, negroes, or natives of Ireland.

In the early 20th century, after the state permitted communities to do so, Brookline joined many Greater Boston towns in banning triple-decker wooden homes that trademark New England structure so often occupied by poor immigrants. The campaign against triple-deckers was led by anti-immigrant Brahmins like Joseph Lee and Prescott Farnsworth Hall, a Brookline resident who cofounded a national group called the Immigration Restriction League, which condemned the mixing of races and the influx of immigrants they deemed racially inferior.

Hall also led the Brookline Civic Society, the group credited in historic records for petitioning the town to adopt a zoning code in 1922. Two years later, Town Meeting unanimously voted to create a district where only single-family homes would be permitted. It encompassed most of the towns acreage.

Many of the apartment and condo buildings in north Brookline, such as these Beacon Street units, were built decades before the town was rezoned to limit apartment development. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

By then, many of Brooklines apartments had already been built and the gatekeepers of good taste were trying to ward off other urban incursions. A movie theater, then considered risqu, was repeatedly rejected by town leaders and by voters. The Brookline Chronicle predicted in 1915 that with the influx of moving pictures, the future of these streets will be doomed.

It would take over two decades for Brookline to accept a local theater, which opened in a former Universalist church in 1933. Now, the Coolidge Corner Theatre is widely viewed as a regional treasure.

The full arc of Americas approach to middle-class housing from embrace to abandonment can be neatly told in the story of one postwar housing development in Brookline called Hancock Village.

Construction of moderate-cost housing flourished in the years immediately following World War II, as communities tried to accommodate returning veterans and their families the famous Baby Boom.

Hancock Village sprang from a partnership the town of Brookline formed with John Hancock Insurance Co. Built between 1946 and 1949, the garden-style development of 789 units stretched into West Roxbury and was marketed to veterans at below-market prices.

A view down Gerry Road as a neighbor spoke with a deliveryman from Happy Home Service at Hancock Village in Brookline, which was built in the 1940s. (Brookline Preservation Commission Archives)

Six decades later, the appetite for low-cost housing had passed. The town of Brookline rebuffed a developers proposal to expand Hancock Village by building more townhouses and an apartment building. Fierce opposition came not just from neighbors, but from the town Select Board, which joined residents in fighting the project in court.

What had changed during those decades? Plenty.

Urban renewal had plowed down two entire neighborhoods of Brookline in the 1950s and 1960s, demolishing tenements to make way for modern buildings including Town Hall, the sprawling Brook House condominium complex, and public housing developments. The early 1970s brought a surge of proposals for apartment buildings such as Dexter Park, a nine-story complex of over 400 units in the Coolidge Corner area that residents tried to block.

Rattled by the pace and scale of the changes, Brookline Town Meeting members voted to scale back apartment density in 1973. First, they temporarily banned construction of buildings with six or more units, while notably exempting public housing. Then they imposed strict height limits and design review standards along the towns main corridors, where the largest apartment buildings were being built. At the same time, they reduced maximum building heights in local districts along Harvard Street. They also decided that no multifamily buildings with 10 or more units could be built anywhere in Brookline without a special permit.

Those decisions instantly stunted residential growth around the town just as tumultuous societal changes, propelled in part by the Civil Rights Movement, were reshaping the development patterns of cities and suburbs. Boston would soon erupt into violence over court-ordered busing to integrate schools, and white flight to the suburbs would accelerate.

Brooklines effort to squash apartment construction within its borders 50 years ago was remarkably successful: Only about 3,700 housing units have been built since then, assessing records show. In comparison, Brookline saw far more robust development in the previous decade, building about the same number of units in just 12 years.

Todays pro-housing activists look back at the restrictive zoning decisions made 50 years ago with a jaundiced eye.

While the folks who downzoned Brookline in 1973 did not draw a race-based red zone ... they clearly wanted to make it difficult for anyone new to move into this community, Katha Seidman, a board member for the pro-housing group Brookline for Everyone, said at a public hearing in September.

Hancock Village in south Brookline has been the subject of heated battles over multifamily housing. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

Fast forward to 2011, when the owner of Hancock Village proposed a major expansion, including an apartment building with some affordable units. Neighbors were adamantly opposed, citing concerns about increased traffic, more students for the already crowded elementary school, and the need to protect a nearby nature preserve.

Apartment complexes so common in the northern part of Brookline are an anomaly in the southern portion of the town, below Route 9.

South Brookline is zoned almost entirely for single-family homes, in some spots with minimum lot sizes of 40,000 square feet. The neighborhood is characterized by open space, country estates, and golf courses, notably The Country Club, one of the first and most exclusive golf clubs in the nation.

When residents of South Brookline wanted to stop the expansion of Hancock Village, town leaders took an ironic tack: They exalted it as an example of a postwar housing development so unique it should be preserved as historic and protected from change.

Brookline Town Meeting crafted a bylaw that would allow the town to create so-called Neighborhood Conservation Districts. Then, Town Meeting members voted to create such a district around Hancock Village, limiting future changes to the landscape and capping building heights at 2.5 stories.

The developer, Chestnut Hill Realty, fought back and returned with an even larger plan that included more affordable housing units. Even after some town leaders negotiated a compromise, Town Meeting members voted it down.

It was a protracted legal battle, which the town ultimately lost. Four years ago, a Massachusetts Land Court judge invalidated the Hancock Village Neighborhood Conservation District, calling it impermissible spot zoning that was clearly designed to block the development.

Construction workers at the Puddingstone at Chestnut Hill on Sherman Road in Brookline. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

Hancock Village got its permits. Much bigger now than when it was first proposed, the development will add 461 units, including a six-story apartment building called Puddingstone.

With 250 apartments, Puddingstone wont be the largest building in Brookline. There were already 28 residential complexes in town with 100 or more units. But its the only one of that size built in this century. Brookline hasnt permitted a project with 100 units or more since 1984.

The tradition of local control over zoning has tended to empower opponents of new apartments and condos in Brookline and beyond.

A few years ago, Boston University researchers published a study documenting what was anecdotally evident to anyone who has ever attended a zoning board meeting: Development proposals draw overwhelmingly negative feedback. They concluded this by tracking public participation in planning and zoning board meetings in 97 Massachusetts cities and towns.

While voters in these towns supported affordable housing construction in the abstract, the researchers wrote, a significant majority of those attending meetings opposed specific project proposals.

In many Massachusetts towns, residents can do far more than voice their complaints at zoning meetings. They can cast deciding votes against housing proposals.

At a September public hearing, Select Board member Michael Sandman, left, talks with David Pollak, a member of a committee studying Brookline's rezoning efforts, as Select Board Chair Bernard Greene and members John VanScoyoc and Paul Warren prepare for the session to start. Richard Benka, shown on Zoom, later addresses the hearing. After many residents opposed Brooklines initial rezoning plan, the Select Board appointed Benka to head a committee to come up with an alternative. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

Town meeting, that quintessentially New England form of deliberative democracy, has the final say in town zoning changes, giving participating citizens hyper-local control over land use. Most Massachusetts towns have an open town meeting, where any resident can show up and vote. Brookline has a representative town meeting, which requires members to run for election to participate.

Town meeting is often viewed as the truest form of representative democracy. But the 255 members of Brookline Town Meeting are dramatically unrepresentative of the towns population on two points age and levels of homeownership, a Globe review found.

After the election in May, the median age of Brookline Town Meeting members was about 60 far older than the median age of all Brookline residents, which is about 35. Though Brooklines population skews young with 30 percent millennials only about 13 percent of Town Meeting members are millennials or younger. A majority of Town Meeting members, nearly 55 percent, are either baby boomers or members of the generation before them, the Globe review found.

Most strikingly, in a town where more units are rented than owner-occupied, the people elected to Brookline Town Meeting are overwhelmingly homeowners, the Globe found. Eighty-five percent of Town Meeting members own their own homes or live in properties owned by their spouse, partner, parents, or other relatives. Only about 15 percent of Town Meeting members are renters, the Globe found.

Amanda Zimmerman and Jeff Wachter at home with their children, Jacob, 6, (left) Alana, 9, and Micah, 2. The couple helped form a pro-housing group, Brookline for Everyone, after seeing other families priced out of the town. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

That concerns housing activists, who worry that the town leaders who control the valve of the housing supply through zoning have a vested interest in closing it.

They have acted, time and time again, to keep supply low so that their property values go up and up and up, said Amanda Zimmerman, a 40-year old neuroscientist and mother of three who cofounded Brookline for Everyone.

Or, as former Select Board member Raul Fernandez described Town Meeting: Its a homeowners association with a few renters.

Brookline residents will be the first to tell you that they support affordable housing. And, by some measures, they really do.

Brookline has an inclusionary zoning policy that requires developers of four or more units to set aside 15 percent of them as affordable. The town is home to a significant number of public housing units built by the state and federal governments decades ago and has directed local funding toward much-needed renovations to keep them open. The town even built an affordable housing development on Fisher Hill, a picturesque neighborhood designed by Olmsted where the earliest settlers signed deeds with covenants promising to never allow apartment houses in.

During a site walk of the town this summer, Brookline Planning Director Kara Brewton (left) talked with members of a committee considering zoning changes. Studying the zoning map were Ken Lewis, committee chairman Richard Benka, Linda Olson Pehlke, Katha Seidman, Neil Wishinsky, and David Pollak. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

But these few compromises have only produced a smattering of affordable units compared to all the high-end housing here.

From 1990 through 2020, Brookline added 8,473 people and just 2,608 housing units, according to data from the federal Census. Brooklines housing inventory increased 10.3 percent during that time. Predictably, the median price of a home skyrocketed 459 percent.

For people like Chima Ikonne, a 45-year-old father who teaches in Brookline, the local housing market has proved to be impossible.

They have acted, time and time again, to keep supply low so that their property values go up and up and up.

You put in an offer, youre competing with people who are willing to pay cash for everything, willing to offer $20,000 over asking, he said. These are people I cant really compete with.

Meanwhile, a community that prides itself on diversity is changing. Though its Asian, Latino, and multiracial numbers are on the rise, Brooklines Black population has declined from 3.4 percent in 2010 to 2.5 percent in 2020, data show, and there is a $50,000 gap in median household incomes between white and Black households, the Brookline Community Foundation found.

A recent report from the Partnership for Financial Equity and the Chicago-based Woodstock Institute documented how very few Black homebuyers there are in town. Of the 575 buyers who got residential mortgages in Brookline in 2021, only 11 of them were Black.

The preservation instinct is especially acute in a place as steeped in history as Brookline, the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy.

The Beals Street house where Kennedy was born was preserved as a national historic site after his death and restored to look as it had in 1917. Even today, his name is often summoned to ward off change to the neighborhood.

A cut-out of President Kennedy was placed outside his birthplace in Brookline. Visitors Angelica Rodriguez and George Reid talked with ranger Eleanor Katari outside the national historic site on Beals Street near Coolidge Corner. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

Six years ago, one resident unsuccessfully beseeched the town to preserve an out-of-use gas station from being replaced by housing, calling it an example of the architecture of Kennedys childhood. The building at 455 Harvard Street is a quaint, early gas station probably used by the Kennedys for their new motorcar, she wrote, without providing evidence.

Reverence for Kennedy was most famously leveraged by Brookline residents who tried to preserve the shuttered church where he was baptized from being demolished for affordable housing.

St. Aidans Catholic Church was in a leafy but already dense neighborhood about halfway between Boston University and Coolidge Corner.

Still, neighbors erupted with opposition in 1999 when the Archdiocese of Boston proposed replacing the closed church with a six-story, 140-unit apartment building. Few of the opponents were parishioners, the Globe reported at the time. But their sophisticated efforts included outreach to the Vatican, hiring an expert in canon law, pleading for the creation of a historic district, and, eventually, filing a lawsuit in Superior Court.

Clockwise from top: The site where the The Million Dollar Tree stood outside St. Aidan's Church in Brookline, where a housing project was scaled back, in part, to save a tree. The tree died and had to be removed last year. A child joined a protest to save the 150-year-old copper beech tree from destruction in 2003. Members of the steering committee of the campaign to preserve St. Aidan's stood outside the church in 2001. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff, Amy Newman for The Boston Globe)

The archdiocese dialed back and agreed to preserve part of the church. Opponents then shifted their mission to protecting a 150-year-old copper beech tree in the path of construction. The tree inspired so much fervor prompting letters to the editor and poems to the Zoning Board that the planners decided to preserve it, too, though not without sarcasm. Town leaders took to calling it The Million Dollar Tree. One church official told the Globe that although it was a very nice tree if it comes down to housing 10 more families in need or keeping the tree, Im going to vote for the 10 families in need.

Brookline did not. When the St. Aidans development opened after an 11-year saga, it had only 59 units 42 percent of the original proposal and only 36 of them were affordable. When the first 20 low-income apartments were advertised, 500 people applied, the Globe reported.

The Million Dollar Tree was saved, but only for a time: It succumbed to beech leaf disease and had to be removed last year.

Deborah Brown, president of Brooklines Community Development Corporation, is no longer surprised by her towns resistance to change. At a public hearing in October, she challenged residents to consider if racism plays a role in their reluctance to allow more multifamily housing. She also noted that her 2018 proposal to rename a public school, which had been named after a slave owner, faced strong opposition before it ultimately passed.

If people fight that hard for a name, said Brown, what are they willing to do if they think their real estate values are in jeopardy?

Deborah Brown, president of the Brookline Community Development Corporation, is also a board member of Brookline for Everyone, which has pushed for more multifamily housing units to be built in town. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

Colorful yard signs that dotted Brookline lawns in May illustrated the divisive political fight between two factions in one of the most hotly contested local elections in recent memory.

Lets Make a Plan, said the blue-on-white sign of Brookline by Design, the group that wants to limit development.

Were for Housing. Transit. People, said Brookline for Everyones sign, featuring a silhouetted image of a streetscape.

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Brookline homes: One wealthy liberal town reckons with its past - The Boston Globe

The state auditor of Mississippi recently released an eight-page report suggesting that the state should invest more in college degree programs that could improve the value they provide to both taxpayers and graduates.

That means state appropriations should focus more on engineering and business programs, said Shad White, the auditor, and less on liberal arts majors like anthropology, womens studies and German language and literature.

Those graduates not only earn less, Mr. White said, but they are also less likely to stay in Mississippi. More than 60 percent of anthropology graduates leave to find work, he said.

If I were advising my kids, I would say first and foremost, you have to find a degree program that combines your passion with some sort of practical skill that the world actually needs, Mr. White said in an interview. (He has three small children, far from college age.)

For years, economists and more than a few worried parents have argued over whether a liberal arts degree is worth the price. The debate now seems to be over, and the answer is no.

Not only are public officials, like Mr. White, questioning state support for the humanities, a growing number of universities, often aided by outside consultants, are now putting many cherished departments art history, American studies on the chopping block. They say they are facing headwinds, including students who are fleeing to majors more closely aligned to employment.

West Virginia University recently sent layoff notices to 76 people, including 32 tenured faculty members, as part of its decision to cut 28 academic programs many in areas like languages, landscape architecture and the arts.

Several other public institutions have announced or proposed cuts to programs, largely in the humanities, including the University of Alaska, Eastern Kentucky University, North Dakota State University, Iowa State University and the University of Kansas, according to The Hechinger Report, an education journal.

Miami University, a public institution in Oxford, Ohio, with 20,000 students, is reappraising 18 undergraduate majors, each of which has fewer than 35 students enrolled, including French and German, American studies, art history, classical studies and religion.

Those departments are dwarfed by computer science, which has 600 students enrolled; finance, with 1,400; marketing, with 1,200; and nursing, with almost 700.

For the humanities faculty, its an existential crisis, Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, provost of Miami University, said in an interview. Theres so much pressure about return on investment.

She said that she hoped that the subject matter, if not the majors, could be salvaged, perhaps by creating more interdisciplinary programs, like cybersecurity and philosophy.

The shift has been happening over decades. In 1970, education and combined social sciences and history degrees were the most popular majors, according to federal statistics.

Today, the most popular degree is business, at 19 percent of all bachelors degrees, while social sciences trail far behind at just 8 percent of degrees.

Many courses on the endangered list are also dissonant with an expanding conservative political agenda. And many public universities are loath to invite further scrutiny of their already stagnant state subsidies.

At Miami University, degrees on the chopping block include critical race and ethnic studies, social justice studies and womens, gender and sexuality studies.

Mr. White, the Republican state auditor, said his first question was whether state spending on degree programs matched the needs of the economy. But he said that he also wanted to know, Are we paying or using taxpayer money to fund programs that teach the professors ideology, and not just a set of skills on how to approach problems in the world?

Liberal arts professors are trying to defend themselves, using arguments tailored to an economy that is rapidly shifting while also appealing to a more august vision of lifes possibilities.

In a recent YouTube video bluntly titled Is a Humanities Degree Worth It? Jeffrey Cohen, the dean of the humanities at Arizona State University, defends his domain as a pathway toward not just a job but a lifetime of career reinvention.

Our students are living in a time when the career that theyve trained for is not likely to be the career that theyre going to be following 10 years later, Mr. Cohen says. Studying the humanities, he argues, will teach them how to be nimble.

In a recent panel discussion in New York City, sponsored by Plough, a quarterly Christian-oriented magazine, Roosevelt Monts, a senior lecturer in American studies and English at Columbia University, suggested that universities should push back against a strictly careerist view of education.

Its not true that all students want from a college is the job, he said. They are hungry for an education that transforms them, an education that addresses their entire selves, not just a bank account.

But that argument seems to be faltering almost everywhere.

Harvard, which has an endowment of more than $50 billion, formed a strategic planning committee to look at humanities education. One idea, a university spokesman said, would consolidate three language majors into one super major: languages, literatures and cultures.

There is also collateral damage. In early October, Gettysburg College shut down The Gettysburg Review. In its heyday, the magazine, founded in 1988, published writers like E.L. Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates and Rita Dove. More recently, it has prided itself on publishing up-and-coming writers.

The editors of the magazine, Lauren Hohle and Mark Drew, were caught off guard when the college provost told them they were being fired.

She said were not serving the core mission of the college, Mr. Drew recalled. I was going to say, What is the core mission? I thought this was a liberal arts institution. But I was trying not to be snarky.

To Mr. Drew, The Review, with about 1,100 paying subscribers, was a symbol to the outside world of the colleges commitment to the humanities. But to the universitys president, Robert Iuliano, the review was a money pit that might have bolstered the colleges reputation among the literati, but at a cost to the student body.

The magazine earned about $30,000 to 40,000 a year in subscription revenue, and the operating cost is something like five times more than that, he said.

We have been really thinking hard about what it means to prepare students for todays world, he said, because you know, its changing with such rapidity. That means, he added, offering courses that could be twinned with hands-on experiential opportunities.

Mr. White, the Mississippi state auditor, majored in political science and economics at the University of Mississippi before becoming a Rhodes scholar and a graduate of Harvard Law School a fine example, perhaps, of the value of the liberal arts.

But if he could do it over again, he might switch majors, he said, because political science majors dont command a high salary. Working on a campaign or in government might be more valuable experience than the degree, he said.

Mr. White said he personally would have liked to play acoustic guitar for a living. But he doubted his chances for success, given the small number of jobs available.

Then he seemed to reconsider, conceding: If you dig into the data, music majors do pretty well for whatever reason. They go to work at schools, they go to work at the university setting, or they work in churches.

So on reflection, he softened his message. What I would tell students is, dont write off all of liberal arts, he said. Dont write off all of the fine arts.

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The Value of a Liberal Arts Degree: Whats the Return on Investment? - The New York Times

Ventura County, California sheriffs officials say an investigation into the death of Paul Kessler, a liberal political activist who was killed during a counter-protest in support of Israel at a pro-Palestinian demonstration Sunday, is ongoing and that there is a known suspect, Grace Toohey, Jeremy Childs, Richard Winton, Noah Goldberg, and Terry Casleman report for the Los Angeles Times.

An autopsy shows Kessler died from a blunt force head injury, typical to a fall, which investigators say was sustained during an altercation between him and a pro-Palestinian protestor. Witnesses from both sides of the protests shared conflicting statements about what led to Kesslers fatal fall and who the aggressor was. One protestor said that he saw one of the pro-Palestinian protesters hit someone with his megaphone. The Anti-Defamation League called on law enforcement to launch a thorough investigation to determine who is responsible. Police say that the suspect, who told authorities he was involved in an altercation with Kessler before he fell and hit his head, has been cooperative with investigators and was, in fact, among those who called 911.

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California Police Say Investigation Ongoing into Death of Liberal Pro ... - Crime Report

LaRue who also is working on certificates in information security systems and national security agency worked with the Dolphins information technology department, where she conducted research about different software systems that could be integrated into the current systems of the stadium to increase efficiency and productivity.

A lot of my research culminated in meeting with different software companies and conducting meetings with them to see what was best for the stadium, LaRue said. Some of my work also allowed me to work Rolling Loud Miamis [an annual hip-hop festival hosted at Hard Rock Stadium] point and sell systems, where I helped troubleshoot the different concert venues technical difficulties.

During her time as an intern, LaRue worked on a final group project with other departmental interns to create an event for the stadiums new Paddock Club, a luxury experience for people interested in the Miami Grand Prix. Their teamwork and creative input resulted in a pitch for an e-sporting stadium event for next summer.

Our group decided that having an event for gaming with preexisting sponsors of the Miami Dolphins would help bring people of all ages together, especially our younger audiences. The interaction among fans is what brings Miami fans closer, LaRue said.

LaRue said her sociology courses helped her work well with the other interns.

Especially in terms of listening to their likes and investigating why they liked certain aspects of an event over others, my sociology degree has helped bridge the communication gap between all the interns so that we could reach a win-win pitch, she said.

After her internship at Hard Rock Stadium, LaRue applied for a position with Penn State football this semester. She landed a recruitment internship, where she now welcomes athletic recruits, gives on-field assistance, and creates communication charts for game days.

During my summer internship, I learned a lot about time management, networking and how to manage my manager how to learn more from the opportunities presented to me in my position, LaRue said. I hope to expand and reflect on these lessons and apply them to my work with Penn State football, especially capitalizing on other peoples experiences of football for the interests of the team and fanbase.

LaRue is applying for full-time positions in the sports technology field.

My sociology degree, especially approaching graduation, is helping me use my business side and be open-minded when it comes to the world and possibilities of a job offer, she said.

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Liberal Arts, IST student scores sports technology internship with ... - Pennsylvania State University

On Wednesday a desperate headline was made out of an irrelevant Scott Morrison warning Anthony Albanese about the Prime Ministers China visit.

Theres a dog across the road, barks a bit. Her woof-woofs would be of greater value.

The dog has never been a wrecking ball trashing Australian diplomacy, doesnt have a track record of lying or duplicitous governance, suffers from no strange ideology potentially distorting her judgement and is not a Donald Trump fan.

In my book, that makes her more worth listening to than Mr Morrison.

It must have been a very quiet day in London for Mr Morrison to be noticed on the sidelines of the grandiosely-titled Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference a three-day right-wing gathering providing a culture wars echo chamber for conservative spear-carriers and failed Liberal leaders, with Messrs Howard, Abbott and Morrison among the 100 or so Australians attending at somebody elses expense.

Each of the three failed PMs has managed to generate a headline while on tour, Howard dissing multiculturalism, Abbott dismissing the climate cult, and Morrison sledging Mr Albaneses China visit.

Ill come back to the last of those, but first the confluence of the Liberal trio poses a perennial question that probably wont be asked in London: Who has been the worst leader of the federal Liberal Party?

Its a tough one.

The conservative faithful would no doubt nominate any and all of the parliamentary leaders who failed to win government, so the question needs refining: Which leader of the federal Liberal Party has done the most damage to Australia?

The race is open-ended, given Peter Dutton is doing his utmost to be divisive, misleading, negative and to keep the culture wars firing. He displays an inclination to combine the worst traits of Howard and Abbott, but he is yet to have the opportunity of being prime minister to test the full potential of his hostility.

In chronological order then, the main charge that tends to be made against the Howard prime ministership is that it set the tone for what came after the weakening of the public service, the elevation of the culture wars, the demise of ministerial responsibility and the dismissal of the black arm band view of our history just when Australia was opening up to owning its past.

Good government, then not so much

The first two terms of the Howard Government featured good governance. There was genuine ministerial responsibility ministers were sacked for failures. Major difficult tax reform the GST was taken to an election for a mandate. And, most famously, there was gun control.

Whether or not you liked the policies, they were legitimately introduced and Australia was better for them.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Then good government went to hell in the third and fourth terms, starting with the children overboard lie and going downhill from there. The Tampa affair, demonising refugees, joining disastrous American military adventures, ditching the concept of ministerial responsibility, running dead on climate, turning superannuation into an egregiously iniquitous and extravagant tax haven for the wealthy and the great sin of omission not investing the resources boom windfall.

But then came Tony Abbott, the great wrecker.

His signature achievement was destroying anything like effective carbon policy in keeping with his unrepentant and continuing climate denialism, locking Australia into a lost decade aligned with Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Repealing the resources rent tax was a close second, popular with party donors but denying the Commonwealth a reasonable and valuable revenue stream. On a much smaller scale but symptomatic and with the same mentality and popularity with party donors was ditching Labors fringe benefits reform to tighten the car novated lease tax rort.

Successful as an Opposition Leader success being winning government he seemed to remain in that role despite becoming prime minister, continuing to kick any head he saw.

Politicisation of the public service was pushed to another level. Among his very first decisions were the night of the short knives sacking quality public servants and pulling Steve Bracks off the plane to New York so he could send his great supporter and fellow climate vandal Nick Minchin as consul-general instead.

Abbotts head-loppers

Whether or not they had any connection to the Labor Party, anyone appointed by the previous government was a candidate for non-renewal.

John Howard had achievements. Tony Abbott had unrelenting pugilistic snark blessed by George Pells conservative theology.

By comparison, Scott Morrison was mainly just weird, influenced by his even stranger and crueller prosperity theology. The lies, the duplicity and secrecy, the further climate scepticism and defenestration of the public service were topped by the sheer nuttiness of his clandestine multi-ministries and his pushing of corrupt pork barrelling to previously unimagined multi-billion-dollar levels.

Id argue the most damage he did though was his disastrous mangling of our diplomatic ties and setting Australias course to be even more of Americas Deputy Dawg through the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine stunt a course Defence Minister and Deputy PM Richard Marles continues to sail.

Stacking key security and defence posts with a range of Sinophobes, dingo warriors and American admirals and spooks while sidelining diplomacy is proving to be his lasting legacy.

The epitome of Mr Morrisons ineptitude, fresh from basking in the warm inner glow of a conversation with Donald Trump, was needlessly managing to push the steadily escalating tension with our most important economic partner over the edge in the way he bellowed a demand for a weapons-inspector-style investigation of the origins of COVID.

As with everything else that went wrong on his watch, from Robodebt to grants corruption, Mr Morrison is unrepentant, still seeking some sort of relevance in conservative circles, a master of the cascading Bart Simpson defence: I wasnt there; I didnt do it; you didnt see me; you cant prove a thing.

In the footsteps of Gough

Mr Albaneses China trip, 50 years after Gough Whitlams historic visit and recognition of China, is another delicate and cautious step towards a healthier relationship, despite the surrendering of Australian sovereignty to the US.

It was a clear message received by we members of the Asia Pacific Journalism Centre visit to China last month.

As Karen Middleton reported in The Saturday Paper, China hopes for an independent Australia, rather than one in lockstep with its great rival.

That does not appear to be on Australias political horizon, but civilised diplomatic behaviour, agreeing where we can, differing when we must, is a massive improvement on Morrisons tone-deaf blundering making difficult situations worse.

Australia has been capable of independent policy in the past. When China was starving thanks to Maos disastrous Great Leap Forward, the Menzies government was prepared to provide wheat against US policy at the time of not trading with China.

Humanity and longer-sighted diplomacy trumped the domestic political perceptions and Americas wishes.

So Morrisons greatest damage to Australias best interests may be repairable more quickly than Abbotts. (And, as I keep trying to remind people, it was smashem Peter Dutton who actually led the domestic political COVID charge against China.)

Thus, for mine in this quick once-over-lightly summary, Tony Abbott wins as the worst Liberal Party leader.

Its not a definitive judgement. Historians will eventually deliver hefty tomes on the subject. And given the trajectory of the LNP, theres always another contender.

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And the award for the worst Liberal Party leader goes to... - The New Daily

(JTA) Israeli, observant Jews living in the United States, and especially here on the West Coast, are aware of the time difference between them and Israel at the beginnings and endings of holidays. While Israel celebrates or commemorates meaningful days, Im behind, still preparing. So unlike my family and friends in Israel who observe Yom Kippur and found out only after their sundown what transpired on Monday in Tel Aviv, I read reports and watched videos of the clash between secular and religious Jews in Dizengoff Square as it unfolded.

Feeling both devastated by the ruining of Yom Kippur prayers and angry at the provocation and manipulation by those who organized the Tel Aviv services, I entered Judaisms holiest day with a heavy heart and teary eyes.

And yet, in the days since, I also found some reason for hope that this painful moment was a watershed in Israels path, in which secular Israeli liberals may claim Judaism on their own terms, despite a religious establishment that sees Orthodoxy as its only legitimate expression.

In brief, Rosh Yehudi (translated Jewish head), an organization whose goal is to spread Orthodox Judaism in secular Israel, received approval from the Tel Aviv municipality to conduct Yom Kippur services in Dizengoff Square. These services have been taking place since the early days of the pandemic, and many people observant and secular alike attend them. This year the municipality approved the services so long as they would not include a mechitza, a physical divider separating men and women, a decision that the courts supported. The context of the citys decision was the ongoing assault by the government and its followers (in the name of religion) on the core values of Israeli liberals specifically gender equality.

Rosh Yehudi declared it would abide by this condition and many people who just wanted to pray came to its services. Yet right after Yom Kippur started, religious activists supported by the police on site created a makeshift divider out of Israeli flags. In response, secular protesters, many of them affiliated with the mass movement to protest the governments efforts to weaken Israels judiciary, interrupted the services by whistling, chanting Shame! and removing the makeshift divider, ultimately stopping the services. Similar protests of public Orthodox Yom Kippur services took place at other sites throughout Tel Aviv and other predominantly secular cities within Israel.

For decades, Yom Kippur in Israel has been a unique day. Despite a lack of laws regulating the day, no cars are seen on the roads. Praying, biking, walking and talking, observant and secular Jews mix in the streets and synagogues across Israel. But the events of the last nine months in Israel destroyed that fragile harmony.

Israel is once again caught in a war of narratives. Is it a story of Orthodox activists defying the courts decision and intentionally causing provocation, forcing gender segregation in the bastion of Israeli secularism? Or is it a story about how Israeli liberals, protesters and the left hate religion and religious Jews?

Setting aside the blame game, the events of Yom Kippur raise two sets of questions for Israels future. The first is the nature of the Israeli public square as it relates to Israels Jewish character. What should be the boundaries of tolerance to illiberal practices such as gender separation when they are a part of a religious practice? Was the city right to limit the traditional form of Orthodox prayer due to the public nature of the space? Were the protesters wrong in not respecting this tradition? Should attempts at the religionization of the public sphere and political climate be ignored or taken into consideration?

The more profound question and the one that is much harder to answer revolves around the nature of Judaism itself. Who claims what in the name of Judaism will have lasting repercussions for the future of Israel long after the particulars of this years Yom Kippur are forgotten? And to that end, I want to suggest that a possible change is afoot in how secular Israeli liberals see Judaism.

For decades, Israel has been caught in a social dichotomy: right-wingers are seen as conservative and religious or traditional, whereas left-wingers are seen as liberal and secular. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraced this dichotomy as early as 1997 when he claimed that the Israeli left had forgotten what it means to be Jewish. He doubled down on this view at the end of Yom Kippur this year when he stated, The leftists had rioted against Jews.

This dichotomy is also promoted by the Israeli left. About a week ago, former Meretz leader Zehava Galon shared the following post on X: The problem with Israeli society is the assumption that there is wisdom in Judaism even though it is a manifest of Orthodox Jewish men who werent particularly smart. Its time for us to realize that their cart is full of inciting and dangerous nonsense, and its time we left it on the side of the road. Galon represents the view of many in the Israeli liberal camp today who say they are ready to abandon Judaism, which they equate with Orthodoxy interpreted in the most extreme way.

Indeed, for decades haredi and Religious Zionist rabbis and politicians in Israel have sought to dictate only one option for Judaism: an uncompromising religious Orthodoxy. This conception profoundly contradicts the values of Israeli liberals, and therefore many like Galon say they reject Judaism in any form. But in doing this, Israeli liberals also allow the most extreme elements within Israeli Judaism to deepen their grip and shape Judaism as they see fit.

As a result, secular Israeli liberals reduce themselves to a marginalized minority within Israeli society, the majority of whose members seek a connection to tradition and Judaism and distance themselves from values that run counter to it. Surveys show that only a minority of the general Israeli public supports the protesters actions on Yom Kippur, regardless of the motivations or provocations of the services organizers. If faced with an either/or choice between a discriminatory version of Judaism and universalist liberalism, the Israeli majority will choose the former.

For a long time, only a minority of Israelis actively worked against this dichotomy. Liberal Religious Zionist, Conservative and Reform Jews, as well as Jewish Renewal activists, mostly stood alone in trying to create and defend a liberal Israeli Judaism. But in the aftermath of Yom Kippur, this might be changing.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid shared on X that his neighbor didnt fast on Yom Kippur for the first time in 30 years to spite the other camp. His response was telling: You lost. You gave them ownership of your Judaism. He went on to offer the following observation:

We dont have anything to prove. And we dont need anyones approval that we are good Jews. We have our own version, no less whole. The version that says that we chose to live in this country because we have roots here. That the Bible is our book, that the Hebrew of Ezekiel and Isaiah is the language of our dreams, that we are part of a community that has memories and commitments. We are the flag bearers of a Judaism that is not messianic, not racist, not arrogant and not violent.

Unlike Galons view that implicitly rejects all Judaisms because of how Orthodox Judaism is interpreted today by the government and its followers, Lapid offers an alternative vision by laying claim to a more expansive version of Judaism, whether based on beliefs, culture and/or a shared history.

A nascent but growing chorus of voices in Israel is creating just such an alternative. At nearby HaBima Square in Tel Aviv, a Conservative, egalitarian service took place at the end of Yom Kippur. The Neilah prayer that closes Yom Kippur started with 20 participants and ended with 300. Secular neighborhoods in northern Tel Aviv have plans to build a public secular sukkah and conduct egalitarian Hakafot (dancing with the Torah) on Simchat Torah. And as a response to Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvirs ultimately abandoned plans for a prayer/provocation on Dizengoff Square, the protest movement offered public, egalitarian prayer on HaBima Square Thursday night, which hundreds attended.

Two days after Yom Kippur, Magi Otsri, a writer and legal scholar and one of the protest movements leading online figures, posted a short video that went viral. In it, Otsri notes that Israeli Orthodoxys unwillingness to change the halacha of separating men and women during prayer is based on sexist, power-based notions of women created by men. She asserts that in the past biblical rules were easily changed when it suited religious decision-makers. Whats fascinating is that the secular, Tel Aviv-based Otsri uses arguments that were until now only employed by people internal to Orthodoxy (such as religious feminists). Referring to religious mechanisms for bypassing the prohibition on making loans with interest and the religious rules of war, Otsri is not making her argument on strictly liberal grounds but employing the language of Judaism.

Today, more than ever, Israeli liberals are at a crossroads. In the past nine months, they have articulated a Zionism they have embraced and claimed as their own. Will they leave Judaism behind, or will they claim it too?

Given the rate of shocking events in Israel, discerning social trends in Israel from afar can be overwhelming. But amid the conflicting narratives and deafening discourse, I want to encourage those who care about Israel to listen for and encourage the softer and more subtle sounds of Judaism in the words and deeds of Israeli liberals.

The events on Yom Kippur might lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of a religious war, where Israeli Judaism will be lost to the hands of religious extremists and Israeli liberalism will disconnect entirely from Judaism. Such an outcome is desired by some in both the Orthodox and liberal camps, not to mention the government. But this is not a foregone conclusion, as the words and deeds of Israeli liberals after Yom Kippur reveal. There is an alternative: a more humanistic and pluralist vision of Judaism that Israeli liberals ought to embrace and nurture if they want to win over Israeli society to their vision of the future.

In Jewish tradition, the High Holidays are days of judgment for the past year and a time for resolutions for the coming year. According to tradition, divine judgment starts on Rosh Hashanah, but the verdict is only submitted for enforcement on the last day of Sukkot, or Hoshana Rabbah to give people every last chance to set a new course.

The events on Yom Kippur were undoubtedly heartbreaking, but we are still only halfway through the High Holidays. There is no better time in the Jewish calendar for Israeli liberals to change the trajectory of Israeli Judaism. As a member of the protest movement posted the day after Yom Kippur, The protest movement should do for Judaism what it did for the flag. Embrace [it]. Hard. Instead of blaming the people or groups responsible for the old dichotomy, we just might be witnessing Israeli liberals taking responsibility for a Judaism they believe in.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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Street fights over prayer offer liberal Israelis a chance to define a Judaism they can believe in - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The media often uses freedom of expression to set an unsettling trend. However, the latest stunt by the Liberal Media cannot be ignored. The Hinduphobic cartoon related to the Ujjain Rape Case has far deeper implications than what can be observed on the surface. Such cartoons, often found in liberal media outlets, raise concerns about the boundaries of freedom of speech, unequal treatment of religions, and the propagation of Hinduphobia under the pretext of minority appeasement and equality. Lets discuss the reality of this mindset and shed light on the persistent Liberal Medias Double Standards.

The recent Hinduphobic cartoon in the Times of India has caused a surge of angst in the hearts of Sanatana Dharma followers. The cartoon despicably presented Sanatanis as cow worshippers who ignored the pleas of a bleeding girl. However, this was far from the truth. The girl was rescued by a Brahmin Pandit. She was given solace at the ashram. Contrary to the depiction of Sanatanis in the cartoon, the girl was helped by them. Thus, the question arises why does a Hindu cartoonist want to showcase his own religion in such a questionable light?

In the liberal media, the creation and dissemination of cartoons and caricatures targeting Hinduism and its symbols is a matter of pride. The cartoonists that portray Hindu deities, practices, rituals, or people in a derogatory and offensive manner are given center stage. However, while satire and humor have their place in society, its crucial to question whether these depictions cross the line into bigotry and discrimination.

Is the latest cartoon not Hinduphobic? Does it not send a subliminal message against Sanatana Dharma as a blind faith? Is this not propaganda?

There is no doubt in the minds of any sane human being that the Ujjain Rape of a Minor Girl is a shameful reflection of our society. But why does the cartoonist need to portray cow worshippers as the ignorant group that turned a blind eye to the suffering of a victim? Why would the media platform use this heinous crime and link it with Hindus? And can they get away by using the theme of Namaz worshippers ignoring human plight? Will they be able to print Islamophobic cartoons without repercussions?

Thus, we now step into the zone of unequal treatment of religions when it comes to media portrayals. Hinduphobic cartoons are widely circulated, even encouraged. The cartoons and the cartoonist are celebrated and often escape any scrutiny. Contrarily, the fear of reprisals from minority communities is so high that the media would never provoke their sentiments. The media houses steer clear of similar depictions of other religions that would spark outrage or protests. This raises the question of why the media has a double standard. Are Hindus to be vilified in their own nation? Moreover, are Sanatanis to be betrayed by their own people who chose personal profit over religious pride?

Satire and humor are a required part of any dialogue between media and its followers. However, we must reflect upon the implications of cartoons that descend into Hinduphobia:

Is the media truly as secular as they project? The recent antics by the Times of India cartoonist have led many to ask this question. What are the motivations behind the proliferation of Hinduphobic content in liberal media? Most of the media treat Hindus and Sanatan Dharma as a free game for ridicule. They play with Hindu sentiments and repeatedly try to test the bottom line of Sanatani followers. Every few days there would be a cartoon or tagline that sends the message of or about Sanatana Dharma. Is it truly a quest for equality and justice that the media walks the path of this insidious agenda?

In a world that strives for equality and harmony, consistently applied universal standards are essential when it comes to religious tolerance. Hinduphobic cartoons should be condemned just as vehemently as any form of religious discrimination. Thus, freedom of speech should be exercised responsibly by all media outlets, without inciting hatred or prejudice against Sanatanis.

The bigotry and double standards that exist in the liberal media must be held responsible for the rise of Hinduphobia. They must answer to the majority of the Bharat with the same vigor that they would to any other religious minority. Therefore, Bharat must foster a society where this millennia-old religion is treated with the respect and dignity it deserves. However, are the Liberals, Leftists, and Sickularists up to the task or not is a question for another day.

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Unmasking Hinduphobic Cartoons: The Liberal Media's Double Standard - The Jaipur Dialogues

Twittys work lives at the intersection of traditionsAfrican, southern, and Jewish cultures. Through the lens of culinary arts, he explores history, heritage, faith, identity, social justice, and the human condition in his memoirs and award-winning blog Afroculinaria, and his writings have earned him a Fifty People Who Are Changing the South designation by Southern Living magazine.

His memoir The Cooking Gene received a James Beard Award, and this year his memoir KosherSoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew received a National Jewish Book Award.

An autodidact with a ferocious appetite for learning, Twitty is a disciple of the liberal arts. His life and work have had him crisscross the countryand the globeexploring culture and heritage through his unique culinary lens.

Michael Twitty is such an amazing and unique blend of elements of the liberal arts, and because he learned so much outside the university, he is really a great ambassador for how these disciplines exist in the real world and why they matter, says Jennifer Caplan, author and Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Chair in Judaic Studies at UC.

He is an anthropologist, a botanist and biologist, a cultural historian, a writer, and a thinker. He lives at the intersection of so many different cultures and groups, and he speaks and writes eloquently and brilliantly about them all. He is the liberal arts!

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UC presents lecture on liberal arts featuring Michael W. Twitty - University of Cincinnati

Curtiss Hall (left) and the Campanile (right) on the Iowa State University campus in Ames in July 2015. (The Gazette)

As part of Iowa State Universitys goal to trim $15 million from its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences by 2025 in response to waning enrollment, swelling expenses, and other higher education headwinds the campus last year offered a retirement incentive that has persuaded 17 participants to leave.

In an update to the Board of Regents, which meets in Iowa City this week, Iowa State reported total net savings from the retirement incentive through 2026 of $7.8 million subtracting the cost of the incentive from the salary and benefits that would have been paid to retiring employees.

Those savings average out to $2.6 million a year for the current budget year through fiscal 2026 given the vast majority of the 17 employees approved for the incentive program chose the first of two retirement options.

The first, offering two years of retirement contributions plus health and dental coverage, is estimated to cost the university $22,200 a year per person. The second, offering three years of retirement contributions, is expected to cost $12,700 a year per person.

The average salary and benefit cost for the 127 tenured faculty who were eligible for the program was $127,166 and $33,445, respectively, according to board documents. To be eligible, faculty had to achieve a score of 70 calculated by adding a persons age to his or her continuous length of service, with a minimum age of 60.

Iowa State rolled out the retirement incentive two months after announcing in February 2022 a reimagining liberal arts and sciences initiative aimed at transforming the struggling college into a financially sustainable, student-centered home for learning and research.

Due to declining enrollment, rising expenses in the form of salary increases and building costs, and shifting course demand like from freshmen who fulfilled general education requirements through college-credit offerings in high school Iowa States liberal arts and sciences college in fiscal 2022 had an annual deficit of $11.4 million, relative to a $105 million operating budget.

Based on the most-current data and projection factors, the (liberal arts and sciences college) deficit is expected to grow, according to a summary of the reimagining initiative, characterizing a realistic estimate as growing from the current-year level of $11.4 million to approximately $15 million in FY2025.

Department-specific budget-reduction targets issued at that time calculating in outstanding debt per department tasked the history department with cutting the most at more than $955,000, followed by the department of physics and astronomy and then economics, charged with cutting nearly $800,000 and more than $660,000, respectively.

In response to several of the reimagining proposals, some faculty drafted a petition against defunding arts, humanities, and social science departments.

This reorganization will impair the universitys capacity to give students a well-rounded education, according to the petition. For example, to meet its demanded cut of $900,000 annually, slightly more than one-third of its annual budget of $2.7 million, the Department of History will discontinue its graduate programs, the Master of Arts in history and the doctorate in rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental history.

The ISU college in August gave an update on its $15 million reduction goal reporting about $7.5 million has been trimmed to date thanks to work from department chairs, who drafted individual plans that would enable them to meet the colleges realignment goals and their departmental budget targets.

Faculty retirements contributed to many departments cuts with 24 faculty retiring in the 2023 budget year, including 17 who took advantage of the retirement program.

"I really appreciate the hard work and thoughtful deliberation that department chairs, faculty and staff have invested, ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Beate Schmittmann said in a statement. "It's been an incredibly challenging process, but an important one that will prepare the college for a sustainable future."

In evaluating course and degree offerings for maximum efficiency and student interest Iowa State is in the process of sunsetting its bachelors degrees in speech communication and biophysics and also its history graduate program.

The ISU Department of History website currently alerts prospective students that it is not accepting applications at this time for its Master of Arts in history and doctoral program in rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental history.

On the Board of Regents agenda this week is a proposal to terminate Iowa States bachelors in speech communication, noting interest in the major has been dropping for at least five years. Its 2022 enrollment was 10, with 16 applications, down from an enrollment of 20 in 2018.

The department is expected to save $75,780 by eliminating the 10 courses affiliated with the major, according to board documents. No reductions in staffing are anticipated as a result of this change.

The college simultaneously is innovating with new courses and degree offerings in an attempt to reignite interest. By collaborating with other colleges across campus, ISU liberal arts is creating degrees in integrated health sciences, game design, and financial technology which have been proposed and are pending regent approval.

Iowa States Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication is eyeing a new digital media degree and sports media program both of which remain under development.

Iowa States liberal arts struggle isnt unique with the University of Iowa in 2021 conducting a self-study that documented enrollment losses and unprecedented challenges and transitions. The Chronicle of Higher Education simultaneously issued a report highlighting the dour outlook for liberal arts colleges and ways to navigate the road ahead.

Even as the challenges posed by the pandemic begin to recede, liberal-arts colleges face a long list of difficulties, including a loss of public trust in higher education, a decline in the number of traditional-age freshmen, increasing questions about whether a high-cost college degree is worth the money, and growing competition from lower-cost alternatives, according to the Chronicle report.

Forbes earlier this year reported on new challenges emerging across the liberal arts realm including artificial intelligence in the form of ChatGPT and the like. The Chronicle, in its piece, suggested recruiting a more diverse student body, developing more career-liberal arts connections, and creating niche programs.

At this weeks regents meeting, the University of Iowa is asking to terminate two liberal arts programs: its Master of Arts in Asian civilizations, which enrolled two students last year, and its masters in German, which has had no students enrolled for more than a decade since 2009.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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ISU makes progress on liberal arts cuts through incentivized ... - The Gazette

For the first time, Harpur College of Arts and Sciences has awarded graduate- student support from the new Harpur Deans Graduate Investment Initiative, made possible thanks to Mitchell J. Lieberman 80 and Susan G. Lieberman.

The couple established the fund to enhance graduate education in Harpur at the student and programmatic levels. The support empowers Harpur to focus on immediate initiatives and those that will shape the future of the college.

Dozens of graduate students received essential funding this past spring to advance their work. Fourteen of them have projects dedicated to the arts and received approximately $11,000 in total funding; other projects are focused on activities outside the arts, with 24 students each receiving $1,000. Here are just some of the recipients:

The primary documents needed to advance pathbreaking research can sometimes be a world away.

Fourteen graduate students in the arts received a total of about $11,000 to advance their projects.

Twenty-four graduate students received $1,000 each to propel their non-arts research.

Elizabethan court records, probate lists, letters, glass fragments and orders for window glass and repairs are just some of the items he pored over in museums, archives and libraries. Most of the materials can be viewed only in person.

Such documents are crucial for understanding the decline and resurgence of the English glass industry and the transparent window glass introduced in England during the mid-16th century, he says.

I argue that the introduction of transparent window glass sparked a glass mania that altered how Elizabethans perceived themselves and their surroundings, he says. Ultimately, my research aims to accomplish several overarching goals: encourage people to pause and take note of ubiquitous materials around us, consider how material innovations change our experiences in the world and prompt readers to not just peer through the glass but also look upon the glass.

Olorunshola, an international student from Nigeria, received crucial funding to investigate the role of biofilm bacteria in the progression of atherosclerosis, a chronic disease that leads to extreme narrowing of arteries, reduced blood flow and increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

A research project of this scale demands more than just intellectual commitment and dedication; it also requires substantial financial support to effectively convert innovative ideas into verifiable scientific outcomes, she says. Without this funding, I wont be able to complete important experiments that will advance me in completing my PhD.

Enzyme assay kits are just some of the necessary supplies she was able to buy to carry out her research.

I aim to investigate if the bacterial biofilm of interest has the potential to produce and release the degradative enzymes that can further weaken cardiovascular tissues, she says. The findings will contribute immensely toward finding a long-lasting solution to the worlds leading causes of death: heart attack and stroke.

What fuels her work and pursuit of a doctorate in biological sciences? Olorunshola says its her passion for medical research, advancing knowledge about microorganisms and their impact on human health, and her drive to contribute to a better understanding of our world.

Jacobs, a masters student in vocal performance, was finally able to say yes to attending the two-week Midsummer Music Dream Festival in Quebec last summer.

The funds present our students with amazing opportunities, contributing to our graduate students artistic and professional growth, and helping them to create new knowledge and hone their artistic skills. The funding will help to ensure that these opportunities are available to all of our students, regardless of their financial means. This generous gift addresses such an important goal in Harpur College. We are so grateful to the Liebermans for helping us give students a stellar education!

Harpur College Dean Celia M. Klin

I was offered a place at the festival [the previous summer], but I had to turn it down because I couldnt afford to go, she says. I am very grateful to have this opportunity!

With support for expenses, Jacobs gained more vocal training, made recordings to prepare for a busy audition season this fall and established vital connections in the opera world.

Her goal? A performance contract or acceptance into an artist diploma (AD) program to continue her vocal growth, she says.

There is nothing like being on stage, she says. I could not live my life without it.

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Investing in the future of the liberal arts | Binghamton News - Binghamton