Brandon Hogan and Jacoby Adeshei Carter: There's No Classics 'Catastrophe' at Howard University

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Source: New York Times

There’s No Classics ‘Catastrophe’ at Howard University

May 2, 2021

By Brandon Hogan and Jacoby Adeshei Carter
Dr. Hogan is the director of undergraduate studies and Dr. Carter is the chairman of the philosophy department at Howard. They are both H.B.C.U. graduates.

Cornel West and his co-author made a common mistake when they wrote a recent essay in The Washington Post chastising Howard University for eliminating its classics department. Reducing the decision to a “spiritual catastrophe,” they overlooked a deeper and more urgent problem: the financial constraints facing historically Black colleges and universities, and the inequality that underlies them.

Our approach to this issue is based in our perspective as philosophy professors at Howard who have reverence for the classics. Our department offers seminars on Plato and Aristotle alongside mandatory courses on the history of Africana philosophy. Classical texts have left an indelible mark on modern philosophy and there’s no question that, in an ideal world, Howard would have a large, thriving classics department.

But departments aren’t free.

The decision to eliminate the department was the result of an intensive effort to determine how to best allocate the university’s limited resources. Departments were assessed based on student interest, cost and benefit, and overall fit with the university’s mission. No one wanted to eliminate any programs, and none of us cheer the loss of the department, but this change was necessary. Anthony K. Wutoh, the university’s provost and chief academic officer, has explained why that is, but we’d like to offer additional insight.

Pronouncements from the ivory towers of predominantly white institutions about what Black colleges should do may score political points and draw public attention. But only those of us who research and teach at historically Black colleges and universities, known as H.B.C.U.s — unlike Dr. West, who has primarily worked at institutions with huge endowments — have the kind of understanding that comes from experience.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/02/opinion/howard-university-classics-department.html

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1. 'Cornel West and his co-author made a common mistake when they wrote a recent essay

in The Washington Post chastising Howard University for eliminating its classics department. . .they overlooked a deeper and more urgent problem: the financial constraints.'