Within the last five years alone, the number of humanities courses offered at Beloit has dwindled significantly. However, the course requirements for most humanities majors and minors have stayed the same. Leaving students struggling to organize a schedule that successfully meets those requirements, along with the gen-ed requirements.
It’s no secret that Beloit College has been shifting its focus from humanities to courses like business and sciences. This not only dictates where renovations and new funding go to but also the number of courses offered per semester. As years go on, professors are either let go or leave for other offers. Leaving the college scrambling to find new hires or simply not offering certain classes. As the number and frequency of classes in the humanities offered decreases, it has become more difficult to plan and complete a major. However, Beloit has not revisited major requirements in a relevant and helpful timeline.
Many department courses have been cut in half since only 2020. According to the Beloit portal course catalog, in the 2020 fall semester, there were ten Philosophy courses, four Journalism courses, and six Greek, Latin, and Mediterranean Studies (GLAM) courses offered. This upcoming semester is drastically different. The spring 2026 semester offers only six Philosophy courses (two of these are the same credit), one Journalism course, and two GLAM courses.
GLAM professor Kosta Hadavas described how his department has changed. “We used to have a faculty of 2.5 and now are down to 2 but the number is actually closer to 1.66, since I teach 1/3 of my classes for Media Studies nowadays,” Hadavas said. This number includes all professors employed by Beloit, not the number of professors currently teaching courses, as there are often professors on sabbatical. As of this academic year, Hadavas is the only professor teaching in his department.
Despite the lack of professors, Hadavas reports that the number of students declaring this major has not decreased. GLAM did modify its major requirements eight years ago to deal with changes. However, the classes offered have decreased by almost half in just five years, making it high time to revisit not only GLAM but all the other departments losing funding and faculty.
Many students, including myself, are struggling to cultivate a schedule that fulfills their major, minor, and general education requirements. Psychology major Tessa Hunter’27 constantly faces difficulties creating her schedule as classes are canceled. “I needed to take a psych course on environmental psychology, and it was canceled permanently the first day, leaving me with literally no classes to replace it with,” she said. “Classes that are supposed to be offered every semester, especially the required courses, are either canceled or not being offered by the semester.”
Education and Spanish major Casey Barasch’26 was unable to fulfill his teaching license due to a lack of personnel. “I got screwed out of my Spanish teaching license because of this,” he said. “They couldn’t afford to pay someone to teach a necessary class for the requirement and now it’s too late.”
In my case, a portal glitch allowing me to sign up for the same credit twice threatened my Philosophy minor. I was informed that I would not be able to receive credit for a class that was scheduled to start in two days. Not only did this mean I had to scramble to sign up for another class to be a full-time student, I was also unsure if I would be able to fulfill the minor before I graduate in the coming semester. My minor would only be completed if two Philosophy courses I have not taken, are not at the same time, and have open seats, were offered. This is not a guarantee, considering the continual lack of classes.
Beloit markets itself as a place of opportunity to study varied topics and even double or triple major. The Beloit College website advertises that “Around a third of Beloiters end up double majoring, and many others have a minor or two (or three!).” But with the state of many departments and the rigid requirements, double majoring or minoring is not nearly as feasible as the website suggests. Beloit must revisit and rewrite credit requirements on a regular basis in order to honor the promise of a comprehensive liberal arts education. As changes are made to departments, and credits remain unchanged, students suffer not only frustration in scheduling but also the threat of losing a major or minor.
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