College English was among the first areas to be taken over by leftism, with young profs entering who were eager to deconstruct literature and impart their utopian visions into the minds of students. Over time, quite a few students who would have otherwise chosen English decided to go elsewhere to avoid the blatant politicization. Therefore, the number of majors has been steadily falling.

In today’s Martin Center article, Richard Phelps looks at the data and finds that there is another explanation for the decline in English majors besides the leftist politics. He writes:

English departments must now compete with some college majors that either did not exist or barely existed decades ago. Moreover, some of these other majors happen to be closely related to the English major, though offering more applied, practical studies. The following chart compares the trends in college degree completion between the early 1970s and 2021 in three IPEDS fields: “English language and literature/letters”; “Communication, journalism, and related programs”; and “Communications technologies.”

That makes sense. Why sit through a bunch of politicized English courses when what you want is some background in particular kinds of communications?

Phelps argues “that at least some of what used to be found in the English department has moved elsewhere on campus and remains very much alive.” Read the whole piece.