Opinion: UO should take humanities off the chopping block

Jeff Schroeder

For The Oregonian/OregonLive

Schroeder is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Oregon. He lives in Eugene.

Last month, I was preparing my syllabus for a new course at the University of Oregon on religion and climate change. My students and I would investigate topics ranging from Pope Francis’s statements on climate to indigenous views of nature to the claim that worship of money and free markets has become a kind of religion in this country.

More broadly, like many offerings in the religious studies department, the class aims to help students develop reading, writing and communication skills, as well as the capacity for both critical analysis and sympathetic understanding of diverse perspectives on a topic.

But in the midst of my teaching pre