I have enjoyed The Ithacan’s coverage of the many transitions occurring at the College. I am writing because I found some opinions about the School of Humanities and Sciences too casually expressed, [which is] important because H&S is often termed the heart of the college. (Seven locations, 20 departments, 2,500 majors, 315 full and part-time faculty, more than 50 degree programs.) Student reports through the recent National Survey of Student Engagement suggest our students recognize and appreciate their H&S education. Important findings from NSSE include “serious conversations” with students of different races or ethnicities, learning which “changed the way you understand an issue or concept,” thinking critically and analytically and acquiring a broad general education. In short, H&S is achieving important goals, say the students.

Let’s look at the more recent additions to the school’s rich curriculum. Ten years ago there was no writing major, which is enormously successful now; nor were there majors in German Studies, Italian Studies, a minor in Jewish Studies and more recently the additions of Arabic, Chinese, and Latin language study through the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. The environmental studies program is just now celebrating its 10-year anniversary, built from the ground up in H&S. More recent is the addition of an environmental science major to complement environmental studies. Other recent additions include a classical studies minor, a Latin American studies minor, and a Native American studies minor, with much on the drawing board. These additions and many others speak to the sophisticated challenge[s] and wide range of opportunity in humanities and sciences.

Thanks to the generosity of donors to the school, this year we formalized a program titled H&S Educational Grant Initiatives, awarding 160 students more than $26,000 for research and conference grants. There were 20 grants to faculty worth more than $15,000, which impacted more than 400 students — usually course or department-based. Student representation at the recent Whalen Symposium helped focus attention on the many dozens of students who, with faculty sponsorship, presented original research in a public forum. Many other programs have a deep tradition of public recognition of students’ accomplishment (the sciences and theatre arts immediately come to mind) as does the senior art show.

A few years ago we decided to raise the profile of the humanities and there has been a concerted, well-received effort to do that. The school’s Distinguished Speaker in the Humanities series kicked off with Robert Pinsky, then Poet Laureate of the United States, and more recent speakers have included Peter Singer, a well-known animal rights philosopher, and David Zarefsky who spoke on the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s famous “House Divided” speech. Other efforts include establishment of the Robert Ryan Professorship in the Humanities and an Emerson Foundation grant to establish collaborative research opportunities between students and faculty in the humanities.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the college’s decision to enlarge and make available to students from all schools enrollment in the H&S Honors Program is an important milestone, as is the college’s Ithaca Seminar Program, again modeled after H&S’s First Year Seminar Program.

In recent years, newly hired faculty increasingly come from other colleges and universities, not straight out of graduate school, which was the norm in previous decades. This fact alone indicates the increasing attractiveness to faculty of joining a widely recognized, high-quality college and school. In summary, though I continue to advocate strongly for the school, especially noting that additional space would elevate H&S’s ability to contribute maximally to the college, I am enormously proud of our programs and faculty and believe that the school’s culture of dedication to its students continues to be the signature element responsible for the school’s success. The heart beats strongly.

Howard Erlich is dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. E-mail him at herlich@ithaca.edu.