Long considered one of public higher education’s finest destinations for graduate work in the humanities, the University of Pittsburgh has cut off admissions to master’s and doctoral programs in German, religious studies, and classics in response to reduced state aid.

Some students and faculty fear those departments may soon be totally eliminated, and online petitions are circulating demanding that admissions be restored in classics (620 signatures) and German (1,460 signatures). "This represents a significant step back from one of the university’s oldest and most lasting commitments, from a subject to which so many others owe an immense debt," reads the classics petition. The German petition laments that the decision "sets a precedence for the dismantling of the humanities based on profit-orientation."

If eliminated, these departments wouldn’t be the first casualties of the nation’s newly condensed college coffers. But the fact that these cuts loom at Pittsburgh – and in programs with students who have turned down offers from elite private universities -- poses larger questions about the university’s commitment to graduate humanities education...