We keep hearing how schools must train young people for tomorrow’s jobs. I’ve whined a few places about the kindly scientists who recently claimed 62% of North Carolina’s jobs required advanced degrees in math and science. I told them people don’t want mathematicians, they want fudgers to conjure some math to substantiate their foregone conclusions. Well, Western Carolina University is eliminating ten degree programs due to funding shortages, and two of the programs to go are applied math and math.

Following is a partial list of programs that got the axe with a possible reason:

  • Women’s Studies – Sexism is bad.
  • American Studies – Nobody knows what that means.
  • Music & Music Education – The best musicians have their own sound.
  • Digital Communications Engineering Technology – It’s so Paleolithic.
  • Multimedia – Everybody’s going back to phonographs and slide projectors.
  • Earth Sciences – Who needs this planet for anything, anyway?
  • Teaching ESL – It’s time for Americans to become multilingual.