At some point even strongly supportive administrations are going to have to make tough decisions if negative trends continue. It’s one thing to have a few perennially small departments whose subject matter you think is important be sacrosanct, and another thing to have almost a third of your faculty lines tied up in areas where there is little student interest.

It’s a really difficult conversation here and elsewhere. My own intuition is somewhat like Menand’s thoughts–that humanities faculty may need to reframe and reimagine some of their courses if not their disciplines as a whole. What I fear, and occasionally hear from colleagues here and elsewhere, is that a different answer, towards is a stronger regime of gen ed or other requirements that will lead to a fixed percentage of the enrollment market at their institution.