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It seems the Lawrence administration has this false notion that Lawrence is only marketable as a liberal arts school with a strong science department and, as of recently, a business school; I want to challenge the idea that courses in foreign languages, gender studies, ethnic studies, religious studies and global studies do not bring in new students to Lawrence University the same way other disciplines do.
Lawrence has an incredibly strong community culture — a culture defined by compassion, political engagement and critical thinking. It is a shared set of values so strong it is sometimes referred to as the “Lawrence Bubble”; we are, on the whole, a student body dedicated to social justice and positive change (more so than the average college campus or the Appleton community around us). It is true that many students don’t arrive at Lawrence with the intention of majoring in fields like ethnic studies or gender studies, but that is because, quite frankly, not many people are taught that those disciplines even exist for undergraduates. The humanities are simultaneously framed as utterly useless by society and deeply threatening to the status quo. Critical race theory, for example, faces such strong parental and governmental opposition because it occupies a status as both frighteningly revolutionary and a waste of time for young children to learn. This is why we see social justice-oriented courses being legislated against by our current presidential administration and an American culture of monolingualism being pushed. We, the students, fear that the Lawrence administration is being persuaded to see these courses as financial drains thanks to this mass devaluing of the humanities and push for anti-intellectualism. We want you to know just how important these courses are to us.
The thing is, once students are finally exposed to gender studies, religious studies and the like in higher education, they stick around. Students majoring and minoring in these threatened disciplines are some of the most dedicated, brilliant, passionate people I know. In what world is it acceptable to discount or dismiss that devotion simply because they declared their major later than someone in the hard sciences? If Lawrence University truly believed each student brought a unique light to this institute, they would not be operating as if students were just monetary sums, something impersonal and interchangeable to be amassed in bulk or else a major will be declared as a failure and considered for downsizing. These are the courses that change the world; these are the courses that protect our human rights; these are the courses that connect us with one another; and these are the courses that make Lawrence University what it is. I can say from my own personal experience that I chose to come here because I saw myself in what Lawrence stands for: a love of learning, a love of diversity and a love of each other. Without foreign languages, gender studies, ethnic studies, religious studies and global studies, I truly believe Lawrence would not be what it is today, and I know I would not have applied.