In Defense of the Humanities

If I were to keep track of the number of times someone has made a comment about how being in humanities is useless and contributes nothing to the world, I could probably note down every day on my calendar. The world as we know it has shifted completely to be one in which STEM has taken over the spotlight and pushed humanities behind the curtain of everyone’s attention. Though this may seem most practical, as a job in STEM normally provides someone with a much more solid income, and the future lies in the developments of many STEM fields, the humanities arguably have a much greater role to play than we think. What is a doctor without the empathy instilled in them for bedside manner? What is an engineer without their ethics to stop them from crossing a certain boundary when it comes to innovation?

Weill Hall Opens Doors to Serve Life Sciences

Faculty members, alumni and beneficiaries gathered yesterday evening to dedicate the Joan and Sanford ’55 Weill Hall and the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology.
Weill Hall — which cost $162 million to build and features state of the art equipment — will serve as the base for Cornell’s New Life Sciences Initiative and its Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology.
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“It would be a place where we tangibly support our efforts of sustainability. It would be a place where innovative ideas will be developed from the bench to the bedsides,” President David Skorton said at the ceremony.