How Humanities Play a Vital Role for Community College Students

Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr. leads students in a discussion.At Austin Community College (ACC), Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr. leads students in a course called Great Questions. It’s a humanities-based, student-centered discussion class, where classic texts are connected with the students' modern lives.

Hadzi-Antich designed the course in response to ACC’s Student Success Course mandate which are required courses that help students develop the skills associated with persistence. Hadzi-Antich felt that the humanities fit that need perfectly.

“The periphery static I heard was, 'I don’t think community college students can handle reading transformative works.' And that pissed me off,” said Hadzi-Antich, who had taught heady, classic texts to his students and seen them thrive. “Community college students are college students. They are half of American undergraduates. If they can’t handle reading source texts and transformative works, what does that say about our estimation of half the population of undergrads?”

After a two-year pilot that started in 2015, Great Questions has grown to roughly 20 classes a semester and over 100 faculty members have taught the class. So far, the numbers show the Great Questions course is achieving its intended goal: students who took Great Questions in fall 2020 had a 98% chance of persisting through to spring 2021.

As community colleges face dramatic enrollment declines across the country, some colleges are expanding their offerings to include technical and skills-based programs. Often, large companies like Google or Amazon partner with colleges for workforce training. But humanities courses are still going strong. According to a 2018 study by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, more degrees in liberal arts and humanities were awarded at community colleges than at four-year institutions. Experts say that humanities, and their integration into workforce programs, helps higher education’s mission to create more employable, well-rounded citizens in American democracy and society.

“The students become not just active collaborators in learning, but the driving force. And it’s really, really remarkable to see students initially hesitant leaving feeling full of confidence,” said Hadzi-Antich.

Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr., associate professor of government and founder of The Great Questions Project at Austin Community College.The addition of technical and workforce programs to community colleges doesn’t necessarily mean the elimination of the humanities, said Dr. Martha Parham, senior vice president and public relations at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Rather, the humanities can pair with these programs.