ACTA in the News
Shakespeare is not to be at most colleges
April 19, 2007
Mary Beth Marklein
USA TodayThey're calling it "the unkindest cut of all." As Shakespeare fans prepare to celebrate the Bard's 443rd birthday Monday, researchers for a non-profit group say fewer colleges appear to require students to study the influential author.
Just 15 of 70 institutions studied require English majors to take a course on Shakespeare, says a report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Washington-based group that promotes academic quality. At least six of those schools dropped or weakened requirements since 1996, when the group did a similar study.
The report examines requirements of English majors at U.S. News & World Report's top 25-ranked national universities and liberal arts colleges, schools in the Big 10 college athletic conference, and a selection of California and New York colleges, along with schools in Washington, D.C., where the Bard is being honored with public events. The study credited an institution with having a Shakespeare requirement if a majority of English majors have to take either a course on Shakespeare or two out of three single-author courses on Chaucer, Shakespeare or Milton.
Among findings:
•The Bard is required by only one Ivy League school, Harvard.
•Among top liberal arts colleges, only Middlebury, Smith and Wellesley have such a requirement.
•Three Big 10 schools — public flagships in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin — require Shakespeare.
•In the nation's capital, only Catholic University and the University of the District of Columbia require Shakespeare.
Earning a bachelor's degree in English without the study of Shakespeare "is tantamount to fraud," says Anne Neal, president of the group.