“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
This line from “Dead Poets Society” is one of the most famous quotes from the 1989 film, and it encapsulates the humanities at their core. Robin Williams’ character, John Keating, speaks eloquently about the human need for beauty, love and passion — qualities that are the sunlight that nourishes the spirit and the breeze that lifts us above the mundane, allowing us to see the world as something more than a set of calculations. These are the things that make us feel alive.
As a humanities student, I often encounter the misconception that fields like mine are “easier” or “less practical” than STEM disciplines. My major is frequently ranked among the “most useless” college degrees along with the arts, philosophy and English. When people learn I’m studying psychology, the common assumption is that I’ll end up working as a barista, never reaching that Ph.D. Yet, my college experience has been far from easy, and sharing a dorm with two pre-med majors has proven to me that the demands of the humanities can be just as intense. While my roommates are in labs late at night or stressing over difficult chemistry exams, I’m reading dense philosophical texts or writing lengthy essays — tasks that would likely seem just as foreign to them as their labs and exams do to me.
This inherent difference in education styles also fosters a difference in abilities: Where STEM education builds a body of analytical students, studying the humanities focuses on communication, interpretation and cultural understanding — qualities that are different but just as important.
At a STEM-heavy school like Binghamton University, it’s not hard to recognize the importance of the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. There’s no doubt that STEM fields are crucial to the functioning of our world — doctors, engineers and scientists are essential to solving global challenges — but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the humanities, which are equally intellectually rigorous and vital. While a STEM professional might excel at solving complex equations, many of the world’s leading mathematicians would struggle to write the philosophical essays I frequently encounter in my studies and vice versa. These are different but important contributions to make to a well-rounded society.
As universities have faced budget cuts and declining enrollment in recent years, the humanities have been the first to suffer. In our own SUNY system, Potsdam announced plans to phase out several liberal arts programs in 2023 — dance, art history, music performance, theater and philosophy — due to financial constraints. This is part of a larger trend as institutions nationwide struggle to justify the expense of humanities programs in an increasingly market-driven educational system.
Beyond declining support for the humanities, students just aren’t choosing to go into the humanities as often. As the postgrad job market continues to get more competitive, it becomes increasingly difficult for students to imagine a high-paying job related to their liberal arts interests. Due to the higher-paying, more readily available nature of jobs in STEM fields, there is a rise in students choosing a STEM degree over what may be their passion for humanities. This has led to structural declines in students’ humanities studies, something that could be easily combatted if more people were willing to recognize the humanities as equally important to STEM disciplines and compensate humanities professionals accordingly.
The continuous institutional pushing of the humanities to the bottom of the educational totem pole threatens our society’s ability to evolve and solve real-world challenges. One of the major benefits of studying the humanities is gaining critical thinking skills and different literary and social perspectives. By studying history, we form a sense of continuity and identity with our past that can help us make informed decisions about our present and future while avoiding making the same mistakes. From geography and philosophy, we learn about other cultures and ways of life that would otherwise be unfamiliar to us, helping build empathy and understanding in our interconnected world. By studying the humanities, we are taught to question the world in an intersectional way, think for ourselves and make informed decisions.
The skills that the humanities can build are endless, developing empathetic, informed citizens who are knowledgeable in current events. To ignore the humanities is to contribute to the peril of advanced human society as we know it, leading to a world devoid of compassion and understanding. Still, the humanities continue to be neglected, especially in university settings.
Besides their necessity to form a well-educated populace, STEM simply does not exist without the humanities — at least, not well. Think of the necessity of ethics in animal testing, global theories of labor in engineering new cars or the history of race relations in surveillance technology. This inherent connection between STEM and the humanities reinforces the need to continue the study of the humanities, as both areas are necessary to sustain human life.
Ultimately, STEM and the humanities are not competing forces — they are intertwined and essential to one another. The world wouldn’t function without the knowledge of science and technology, but neither would it thrive without the empathy, critical thinking, cultural understanding and even the motivation to improve the world that the humanities provide. A society that neglects the humanities risks losing its intellectual and ethical compass. It’s time we recognize the value of the liberal arts — not as an easy path, but as a vital pursuit that shapes the future of our world.
Danica Lyktey is a freshman majoring in psychology.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the staff editorial.