Fighting for the humanities at church-related colleges
“What good is a Methodist college that doesn't have religion professors?” asks one student.
When Ashley Falcon learned that her alma mater, the United Methodist Church–affiliated Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan, was responding to pandemic-related fiscal concerns by cutting programs and faculty positions, she felt stirred to action. Though nearly a decade has passed since she graduated from the college, the Michigan-born high school history teacher working in Barranquilla, Colombia, firmly believes in the value of the liberal arts education she received at Adrian.
“It started in August 2020. I heard they were cutting programs like history, theater, Japanese studies—all these great programs that bring culture and inclusion to the campus,” Falcon explains. “They were cutting those and adding more business-oriented majors and minors. I wrote to my former professor to ask if this was really happening, and she told me it was. I said, ‘We can’t just do nothing.’”
Falcon founded the Asa Mahan Squad, an online group of Adrian students, alumni, faculty, and staff that took its name from the college’s founder, a 19th-century minister, abolitionist, and early feminist. “He was a truly critical thinker, and at Adrian his image was everywhere as an example for us to follow,” Falcon explains.
