The AHA has sent letters to Marymount University president Irma Becerra, provost Hesham El-Rewini, Faculty Council president Sarah Ficke, and Board of Trustees chair Edward Bersoff opposing the proposed elimination of the history major at the university. “The AHA has seen this approach to prioritization and restructuring before, and the results have been detrimental to students. . . . Overwhelming evidence shows that employers seek the kind of skills a history degree can provide,” the AHA wrote. “This elimination is an especially wrongheaded shift at a time when civic leaders from all corners of the political landscape have lamented the lack of historical knowledge of American citizens. Offering a history major is standard at comprehensive universities, and the elimination of the history major would place Marymount far outside the mainstream of its peer institutions.”

Download the letters as PDFs: Letter to President Becerra, Dr. El-Rewini, and Dr. Ficke | Letter to Dr. Bersoff and Ms. Steis

January 24, 2023

Irma Becerra, President
Hesham El-Rewini, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs
Sarah Ficke, President, Faculty Council
Marymount University
Arlington, VA 22207

Dear President Becerra, Dr. El-Rewini, and Dr. Ficke:

The American Historical Association expresses grave concern about the plan to cut majors in the liberal arts at Marymount University, particularly the major in history. As a Catholic institution with a strong tradition of liberal arts education, Marymount has a record of high-quality history education provided by an accomplished faculty committed to undergraduate education. As outlined in its mission statement, “Marymount is a comprehensive Catholic university, guided by the traditions of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, that emphasizes intellectual curiosity, service to others, and a global perspective.” The AHA urges the administration to consider the educational impact of this short-sighted plan, which is likely to weaken the preparation of your students for the global citizenship imperative to economic and civic accomplishment, as well as the lifelong learning essential to occupational and professional success.

The AHA has seen this approach to prioritization and restructuring before, and the results have been detrimental to students. Cutting a core liberal arts degree like history is imprudent. Overwhelming evidence shows that employers seek the kind of skills a history degree can provide. This elimination is an especially wrongheaded shift at a time when civic leaders from all corners of the political landscape have lamented the lack of historical knowledge of American citizens. Offering a history major is standard at comprehensive universities, and the elimination of the history major would place Marymount far outside the mainstream of its peer institutions.

The AHA is America’s largest and most prominent organization of professional historians, with over 11,000 members engaged in the teaching and practice of history at colleges and universities, secondary schools, historical institutes, museums, and other institutions. Our role as an advocate for the study of history in all aspects of American intellectual life extends also to supporting and defending the discipline and its practitioners on university campuses.

To maintain a healthy presence in a university, a discipline requires intellectual and institutional leadership and a strong faculty. Marymount’s recent restructuring eliminated the essential leadership of a department chair and the chair’s central role in promoting and nourishing teaching, learning, and research in history. This has had negative consequences for both faculty and students. Marymount’s previous history chairs had access to the AHA’s online community of department chairs, a particularly active group that enables sharing of data, problem-solving, and conversation about issues ranging from logistics to curriculum. Without this critical position, Marymount’s history program has lost access to important resources that the AHA would be happy to provide through the participation of an appropriate senior faculty member if Marymount demonstrates a commitment to the role of history in the university’s community and curriculum. The further step in eliminating the history major would be just the opposite statement and would make retaining and recruiting highly qualified history faculty difficult. Since every student at Marymount takes at least one history course, this would reduce the quality of teaching for every student at the university.

As experienced administrators we certainly understand the pressure of budgets, and do not underestimate the financial necessities you confront. Given that the history program at Marymount University offers only one course beyond the university’s liberal arts core, eliminating the major offers no financial advantage. Indeed, it is likely to cause enrollment drops and loss of tuition as students in history and other eliminated majors might transfer to other schools, and future students interested in fields such as history will choose not to attend Marymount.

This program elimination will have serious and deleterious consequences for both the quality and reputation of undergraduate education at Marymount University. Once programs are eliminated or truncated, they are often exceedingly difficult and expensive to reconstitute. What might be suggested as a temporary solution to an immediate crisis often becomes a long-term problem. The AHA urges the administration to reconsider this proposal and the faculty to reject this plan.

Sincerely,

Edward Muir
President

James Grossman
Executive Director

cc: Ariane Economos, Associate Professor, Philosophy

January 24, 2023

Edward Bersoff, Chair, Board of Trustees
Patricia Steis, Chair, Academic Affairs Committee, Board of Trustees
Marymount University
Arlington, VA 22207

Dear Dr. Bersoff and Ms. Steis:

The American Historical Association expresses grave concern about a recently announced plan to drastically cut majors in the liberal arts at Marymount University. Although our particular focus in on the gutting of Marymount’s history program, we are astounded by the breadth of the administration’s directive. We have written to President Becerra and Provost El-Rewini, expressing our surprise and chagrin that a Catholic institution with a strong liberal arts reputation would so casually set aside its traditional commitment to history education. Without crossing essential boundaries between governance and management, we hope the Board of Trustees will exercise its oversight responsibilities and ask some hard questions about such a radical and short-sighted decision.

Before writing we consulted your mission statement: “Marymount is a comprehensive Catholic university, guided by the traditions of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, that emphasizes intellectual curiosity, service to others, and a global perspective.” We find it hard to imagine such an institution without a history major, without opportunities for students to engage in the intellectual curiosities and global perspectives that are so central to history education.

The AHA is fully cognizant of the financial stringencies that have generated this reconsideration of institutional priorities. But eviscerating the liberal arts is not a solution for a liberal arts institution. The AHA has seen this approach to prioritization and restructuring before, and the results have been detrimental to students. Overwhelming evidence shows that employers seek the kind of skills a history degree can provide. This elimination is an especially wrongheaded shift at a time when civic leaders from all corners of the political landscape have lamented the lack of historical knowledge of American citizens. Offering a history major is standard at comprehensive universities, and the elimination of the history major would place Marymount far outside the mainstream of its peer institutions.

And there is little to be gained on the balance sheet. Given that the history program at Marymount University offers only one course beyond the university’s liberal arts core, eliminating the major offers no financial advantage. Indeed, it is likely to cause enrollment drops and loss of tuition as students in history and other eliminated majors might transfer to other schools, and future students interested in fields such as history will choose not to attend Marymount.

Sincerely,

Edward Muir
President

James Grossman
Executive Director