James Woelfel, Lawrence
To the editor:
This is a kind of “footnote” to Ben Chappell’s letter about KU’s Humanities program (Journal-World, Feb. 24). Some KU alumni who are Journal-World readers may not realize that Humanities is the program that from 1997 to 2015 was called Humanities & Western Civilization, the result of a union between two long-established interdisciplinary programs. “Western Civ” began in 1945 and for almost seven decades was a graduation requirement for many KU undergraduates. Students read and discussed some of the important texts that had contributed to shaping the ideas and values of the world in which they were living. Humanities was the university’s first interdisciplinary major, established in 1947 and long a source of innovative courses such as the “Interrelations of the Humanities and the Arts” series. In the 21st century the united program has been the home of the Peace & Conflict Studies major track and graduate certificate. The two Western Civilization courses have survived as electives fulfilling certain KU Core goals. Whether PCS and the Western Civ courses continue, relocated to another department or program, remains to be seen. In any case, the discontinuance of the Humanities program effectively marks the end of two undergraduate traditions familiar to — and, I’d like to think, largely appreciated by — generations of KU students.