McCrory jabs humanities, UNC faculty jab back

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated the location where Gov. Pat McCrory made comments about certain college majors in a speech on Thursday. He spoke at Epes Trucking in Greensboro. The story also mischaracterized the attempts to reach McCrory's office. Requests for comment were never received by his office. The story has been updated to reflect these changes. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the errors.

Gov. Pat McCrory might want to exclude the humanities and social sciences from his latest jobs initiative — but UNC faculty say these fields are more crucial than McCrory thinks.

During a speech in Greensboro Thursday, McCrory touted his new “1,000 in 100” workforce plan, an initiative geared toward creating technical jobs and closing the state’s unemployment gap.

“We’ve frankly got enough psychologists and sociologists and political science majors and journalists,” he said, according to the Triad Business Journal. “With all due respect to journalism, we’ve got enough.”

McCrory made similar comments in January 2013, voicing his skepticism of a liberal arts education and its ability to prepare students for jobs.

Susan King, dean of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said she sees the comments as an opportunity to show how technical journalism students are.

“I would love to take him on a tour of the J-school to show him the type of work that is being done here on the technology front,” she said, citing current journalism students who are tracking the Ebola virus online with journalism professor Steven King.

Mitch Prinstein, a UNC psychology professor, said the remarks were shortsighted because North Carolina needs more psychology majors.

“We are experiencing a dire need for mental health workers,” he said. “The rates of mental illness or suicide among adults and youth are remarkably high.”

Data reporting and analysis, as well as app creation, are some of the fields King said journalism students go into.

“I think that the digital economy has advanced the American economy,” King said.

Kenneth Andrews, chairman of UNC’s sociology department, said all four degrees targeted by McCrory provide a solid foundation for a wide range of careers.

“It is an odd claim given that he earned degrees in political science and education,” he said in an email.

Evelyne Huber, chairwoman of the political science department, said there are two ways to look at college education — as vocational training or as a way to think critically about society.

“The benefit is to not only develop good cognitive skills, but to develop knowledge about ... how societies can be shaped in a more inclusive way,” she said.

Huber said McCrory’s comments could be viewed as a political statement that discourages citizen awareness.

“If somebody’s political agenda is to reduce the space for citizenship and to reduce opportunities for participation, then you don’t want a lot of people who care about those things and ask those questions,” she said.

state@dailytarheel.com