Over the past month, rumors have been circulating Saint Xavier’s campus regarding the elimination of multiple majors. The rumors have proven to be true as faculty and staff have received confirmation that Philosophy, Mathematics, Actuarial Sciences, and Religious Studies will be cut from SXU’s list of majors.
The news has come as a shock for members of the SXU community. The biggest surprise stems from the fact that all the majors being cut or on the cutting board are liberal arts programs, despite SXU being a Mercy Institution.
When asked how cutting so many liberal arts programs could affect the school, Vanessa Orlando ‘25 stated “I feel like the school will lose credibility as a whole. What kind of liberal arts college doesn’t offer liberal arts as a career?! One of the reasons this school was an option for me was purely based off the wide selection of liberal arts.”
It is very upsetting to see SXU neglect the liberal arts. Like many other colleges in the US, it seems as if SXU’s administration is falling for the misconception that students can only build successful careers from STEM-related fields. However, there are many important skills students learn from the liberal arts.
Trinity Martin ‘26 is currently minoring in Philosophy. She stated that “My ability to construct arguments has improved due to Philosophy, and I can now think more deeply than before. I envision myself getting better and developing new abilities as I keep gaining knowledge about the subject.”
Although many students have been actively sharing their thoughts about these major cuts, there has yet to be any official communication from the school to students about the cuts. There also has not been any communication about the plans to combine the School of Nursing and Health Sciences with the Graham School of Business.
The combination of schools has already been posted on the university’s website even though students have yet to directly hear any official information about it.
Jena Said ‘23 stated “It seems as though they [administration] are trying to keep it “hush-hush”/ a secret, which is odd, considering this heavily includes the students as well. I understand that SXU makes the executive decisions about what they offer, but we should have heard from them instead of us hearing it through the grapevines.”
When communicating to students, it would highly benefit the administration to share their reasoning as to why these majors are being cut. Without any proper explanation to students, they are going to try piecing it together themselves with the limited information they have.
All of the finalized cuts and the ones being considered suggest that SXU wants to play it safe and only offer programs that have a higher chance of being deemed “employable.” However, it seems that SXU’s administration does not have a clear idea of how successful students in the humanities can be.
SXU alum Genevieve Buthod ‘14 graduated from the university with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Computer Studies. She credits her time studying Philosophy at SXU as the foundation she is building her career on. “Philosophy gives you a strong foundation for so many kinds of other work and study. I’m in the graduate program for Urban Affairs and Public Policy now at Loyola University Chicago, and I am so glad that I have a background in Philosophy, for so many different reasons.”
Buthod also shared how the skills she learned through Philosophy have helped her tremendously in the workforce. “Those years of dense, difficult philosophy writing prepared me to be able to write well and quickly, which I think is something that is unique to studying philosophy. It trains you to see writing as a tool that you can keep getting better at using, rather than just as a skill you either possess or lack.”
At the end of the day, it is inevitable for universities to cut majors and create changes within the school. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with restructuring curricula. Where SXU fails is in communicating with their students about these changes.
Maybe if the school’s administration were more involved with their own campus, they would see just how important the liberal arts are to its students.
*This article was edited on April 26, 2023 at 9:59 p.m. to remove incorrect information. The sentence, “Additionally, Provost Saib Othman. Ph.D. has confirmed that the administration is in the process of determining if History, English, and Spanish will also be cut.”, was deleted because the Provost did not confirm this information to the Xavierite.*