Introduction

‘The discourse of crisis in the humanities persists’, as Kathleen Gallagher and Barry Freeman write in their 2016 collection, In Defence of Theatre. Neoliberal governance models, applied to public university management, have wrought a range of painful outcomes already, as Fabricant and Brier chronicle. Public disinvestment in public higher education has affected the quality and conditions of learning. It has resulted in the rationing of high-demand courses, major disruptions and delays in degree completion and time to degree, overcrowded classrooms, decayed physical plants, and a rapid expansion in the number of part-time faculty. Western is finally emerging from a number of years under a dogmatically STEM- and business-forward administration, and our new president is one bright light at the end of this tunnel.