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Specialization is the main problem, he argued, and called for departments to be abolished in favour of “problem-focused programs” on such topics as Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life and Water.

It was a sentiment more recently echoed by Swiss-British pop-philosopher Alain de Botton, who wrote in “Religion for Atheists” that universities should offer courses on topics of relevance to the soul, such as “being alone, reconsidering work, improving relationships with children, reconnecting with nature and facing illness.”

Some schools follow this thinking, in a less radical way. Arts One at the University of British Columbia, for example, adopts a topic for the entire year, most recently “monster in the mirror,” and the Foundation Year at University of King’s College in Halifax is focused on great books throughout the ages.

The problem, simply, is this. If universities invest in every niche group that seems currently popular, they will just end up shuttering more departments a few years along. But if they stick with just the traditional categories, they risk missing out on the next big thing.

In the humanities especially, these ideals are in conflict, and so deeply polarizing that getting rid of the Ivory Tower’s surplus programs can seem like the academic version of euthanasia. Both women’s studies at Guelph and social justice at Windsor had public funerals, only half mockingly.

In all campus disputes, according to the so-called Sayre’s Law, the tone is so vicious because the stakes are so low. The Windsor social justice centre, for example, employed just one faculty member, and offered three courses. But they reflect a broad insecurity in academia that Mr. Fraser compared to the crisis in attendance among Christian churches, in which desperate times have led to desperate measures.

“Once that happens a few years in a row, panic sets in, and people try to come up with ideas to keep the thing going,” he said.

National Post

jbrean@nationalpost.com