RE LOG Spring '25

SPRING 2025 Ransom Everglades LOG 19 By Matt Margini Humanities Department Faculty On December 10, 2024, Boston University sent out a terse email that made shockwaves in the academic world: “After careful consideration, we have decided to suspend admissions for many of our programs for the upcoming academic year.” The programs in question? All doctoral programs in the humanities, including philosophy, English and history. In the Chronicle of Higher Education , prominent English professor Leonard Cassuto called the announcement a “harbinger of things to come.” But it was also just the latest in a long string of high-profile humanities cuts at schools and universities around the country, including West Virginia University’s controversial 2023 decision to do away with 28 majors – including French. “Part of why humanities gets cut is because it doesn’t produce immediate and recognizable value to society,” said Ransom Everglades Humanities Department Chair Jen Nero. “STEM builds the bridge, and STEM saves the patient, and STEM creates the algorithm. What we do is intangible – though arguably of greater importance.” Against this dour national backdrop, it’s all the more remarkable that the Humanities Department at Ransom Everglades isn’t just doing well. It’s growing and thriving. On the one hand, the school is investing in the humanities more than ever, largely in the form of a brand-new $30 million humanities center set to begin construction in September of this year. But the building, funded in part by a $7.5 million gift from RE parents Brett and Daniel Sundheim, is just a concrete symbol of the growing energy and visibility of humanities programs at RE – energy that can be felt everywhere from the Bowden Fellows Gallery Night to the everyday Harkness table. The persistent quest for excellence in the humanities continues a long tradition dating back to the early days of the Everglades School for Girls and Adirondack-Florida School. From the beginning, both campuses focused on rich discussions of history and literature as key to students’ academic and moral growth. Some of RE’s most legendary educators left their mark in the humanities – Catherine “Kitty” Proenza, Jane Dolkart, Suzanne “Buzzie” Borona-Polson, Michael Stokes, Kenia Rebozo Mestre, Marian Turk, Jose Rodriguez and, of course, Dan Leslie Bowden – to name just a few. When the new humanities building opens its doors, it will only substantiate a truth many students already feel: It’s never been better to be a “Humanities Kid” at Ransom Everglades. And it’s only going to get better from here. “Giving students this precious opportunity to explore the meaning of their existence, this opportunity that I’m not sure they’re getting in any other endeavor in their lives … that’s amazing.” – Ransom Everglades Humanities Department Chair Jen Nero