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This would be the worst time to cut back on the academic resources we devote to the humanities.

ANOUAR MAJID February 11, 2009

Like most sectors of society, colleges are affected by the current economic downturn. Well-endowed universities have lost billions; many others have frozen their budgets and stopped hiring for the short term.

Departments of English, history, philosophy, religion and the fine arts are nervous because they suspect that budget-trimming scalpels usually eye their programs first.

This suspicion is not entirely unfounded. In the best of economic times, many parents wonder whether it is best for their children to major in literature or history. In times of economic crisis, the gods of the market have little time for the gods of ancient Greece or the sages of the East.

Yet we at the University of New England see things quite differently. To us, there has never been a more auspicious time to launch a program in excellence in the humanities with a global focus.

When a great number of people are claiming that the humanities have become an unaffordable luxury, we are thinking quite the opposite. And we are no daydreamers; we know what we are talking about.

In the last few decades, UNE has built a strong reputation in the marine and medical sciences and so knows firsthand the value of a practical education.

Our students are doing well in the various health professions, including medicine; others are committed custodians of our fragile ecosystem and are dedicating their lives to preserving our imperiled environment. Our business majors and health managers are doing well, too.

So why design and launch a center for global humanities when people are looking to trim down such programs?

The answer is simple: We can't afford not to. Much of what we consider to be health- or business-related has a strong cultural component.

We need more than healthy bodies or solvent bank accounts to have a good life. People are motivated to work by a set of cultural values and expectations, and they express themselves in language, producing texts that are as revealing of our conditions as are the various medical symptoms.

Who can reasonably say that religion and nationalism are not powerful ideologies that determine much of our future? Business students should know more about religion if only because religion is big business.

If we care about human beings, shouldn't we try to understand what is human in the first place? Literature and philosophy are more likely to offer insights into these perplexing questions than the best medical handbook. And if, perchance, we worry about the decline of our national status, who better to provide perspective than the wide-eyed historian?

Health and education, which many of us take for granted, are not so self-evident either.

We talk a lot about health care, but how much time do we spend thinking about the meaning of health? Isn't illness an inextricable part of a healthy life? Where do we draw the lines?

We understand the need for certification, but isn't an education designed to promote democratic practice and goodwill as essential, if not more so, to an individual or her nation?

Aren't philosophy, literature, history, art, and other branches of knowledge in the humanities important to the health of our community? We think so.

A community that ceases to read, think, debate and learn is unlikely to prosper or preserve its heritage. By sheer coincidence, the Center for Global Humanities is being launched at a decisive turning point in American and global history.

As long-entrenched tenets of the economy are losing their momentum and nations are growing more diverse, we need the lenses of the humanities -- eyes trained to look at long periods of time and minds used to compare traditions -- to chart a new path for the future.

By adopting a global outlook, firmly grounded in the best interests of our own community, we seek to complement and enhance the academic mission of our university, by adding yet...