CAA News Today

CAA has signed on to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) statement, Fighting for an Ambitious Vision of Public Higher Education in America, in response to proposed cuts at West Virginia University. CAA stands with ACLS in the belief that the stewards of the university are “duty-bound to protect the creation and circulation of knowledge for the public good in all its diverse aspects, across disciplines and interdisciplinary areas.”   

“By proposing major cuts in its undergraduate and graduate programs, including engineering, environmental planning, languages other than English, law, linguistics, mathematics, music, public administration, and theater, the university is denying its students and the people of West Virginia access to the wide range of knowledge necessary to fulfill that mission. The path WVU is treading is unprecedented for a public flagship and dangerous for American higher education and society.” 

Other learned societies and higher education institutions who have signed the ACLS statement:    

American Academy of Religion
American Folklore Society
American Historical Association
American Society for Environmental History
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Association of University Presses
College Art Association
Dance Studies Association
Linguistic Society of America
Medieval Academy of America
North American Conference on British Studies
Rhetoric Society of America
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for Music Theory