The Bard

From the April 19, 2007 USA Today newspaper comes this report published in conjunction with William Shakespeare's 443rd birthday. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), an organization in Washington DC which promotes academic quality, studied 70 universities in terms of their English degree programs.

The study shows that only 15 of these 70 institutions require English majors to take a course on Shakespeare. In addition the study found the following:

• Within the Ivy League schools only Harvard University requires a study of Shakespeare
• Only 3 of the 11 universities in the Big 10 conference (yes, they have 11 members) -- Illinois, Minnesota (yeah!!), and Wisconsin -- require a study of Shakespeare

Anne Neal, president of ACTA, had this to say regarding earning a bachelor's degree in English without the study of Shakespeare "is tantamount to fraud". I completely agree with Ms. Neal. Given the quantity and quality of Shakespeare's work how can any university award an English degree in good faith without having a study of the Bard's work as a core class? This would be the equivalent of awarding a degree in American History without requiring students to study President George Washington.

As tuition rates continue to climb we consumers of higher education should demand better results.

Lay on MacDuff,

Todd