We've been using the same arguments for a long time — do they hold up? Not since the foundation of the first universities in the Middle Ages has the fate of the humanities been so uncertain. Subjects like history, theology, and philosophy report some of the lowest enrollment numbers in the history of higher education in both the United States and Britain. In both countries, less than 10% of bachelor’s degrees are awarded in traditional humanities fields. At the same time, governments in the...

And we're living elbow to elbow with it How much do most students know about the history of our town? I think most of us are at least dimly aware of the Reformation drama. The gruesome images of Patrick Hamilton at the stake or Cardinal Beaton hanging from the castle walls are hard to forget. Perhaps some of us know the story of Kate Kennedy, or the University’s brief involvement with the French and American Revolutions. Here are a couple more esoteric stories from the lower tiers of the St...

Our many misapprehensions of the drugs Having been under the boot of the law for the greater part of 50 years, psychedelic drugs now seem to be undergoing a revival. Silicon Valley types take shrooms or lick frogs in the desert. Joe Rogan seems obsessed with DMT (“it’s the spirit molecule, bro") and Americans flock by the thousands to manicured ayahuasca trips in deepest Peru. With the celebrity interest comes dubious scientific studies —  papers finding various obscure hallucinogens to be...