Observations: The Humanities Center

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of the humanities, and voiced my concern about their difficulties at Miami University and institutions around the country.

I still feel that concern, but I do want to highlight an initiative at Miami that seeks to deal with these problems and is making a significant difference at this institution.

A dozen or so years ago, Karen Schilling, Dean of the College of Arts and Science, came to me with the request to create a new Humanities Center. I assembled a committee of the most important faculty members in the humanities here at Miami, and we brainstormed for several months, then invited Stan Katz to consult with us. Stan was former head of the American Council of Learned Societies, and a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton. With his help, we came up with a plan.

We decided that we would start by creating a year-long seminar of interested faculty members to talk with each other about a theme in the humanities, to plan events and to give talks over the course of the year.

Now, we just needed to fund this idea.

About 20 years earlier, I had written a grant to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for $500,000 that was funded to create a fledgling seminar program in the humanities at Miami. John Altman, an entrepreneur and graduate of Miami, who had studied philosophy and religion and was passionately committed to the humanities, contributed a million dollars, and the program had a hugely successful first year.

Then it died and no one revived it. The money just sat in a bank account and accrued interest.

At that point Dean Schilling sent me to speak with Altman to see if he would be willing to use that fund – now worth about $3 million – for our fledgling Humanities Center. Much to my delight, he agreed, and we named our seminar initiative the Altman Scholars Program, and it has been flourishing ever since.

I was proud of the Humanities Center, and what it was doing, but after a few years, I was close to retirement, and was pleased when Tim Melley, a professor in the English Department, succeeded me. Under his leadership, the Center has flourished beyond my wildest imagination. In addition to the Altman Scholars Program, there are research clusters, where faculty and students work together on common problems, and a variety of programs for undergraduates to spark their interest and involvement in the humanities.

Early in his tenure, Melley successfully wrote a $500,000 grant to NEH, and the University provided the required matching money.

And now Altman, the longtime benefactor of the Humanities Center, has offered a generous $1.5 million matching grant to help fund the Humanities Center and a new seminar program with classes focusing on important humanities texts. For each dollar donated to these efforts, Altman will match it, potentially providing $3 million to bolster this commitment to the humanities.

I still worry about the fate of the humanities. Having devoted my life to their study, I am concerned about what I see as insidious national trends. But initiatives like our Humanities Center are instrumental in sustaining the most important things in our intellectual life.

Allan M. Winkler is a University Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Miami University, where he taught for three decades. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press.