No question about it, universities are expecting faculty to do a whole lot more in terms of teaching and service. As for the humanities and social sciences, I suspect that the long term future is not good. The world outside of academe has changed over that past twenty years in particular. It's much more oriented toward skill specific training than the old liberal arts model. Technology is moving so fast and has become so complicated that it's difficult to take a liberal arts person and train them.
Students also recognize the problems with a liberal arts major.
Part of the problem is the nature of our training in Grad. There is way too much emphases on advancing the field and not enough on determining if it all makes any sense any more. Until we reevaluate what we are doing in our training and how we can apply it to the real world, the social sciences and humanities will continue to experience this disconnect with the world around it. Rob Compton, Asst. Check this box if you would like this submission to be considered for publication as a letter to the editor in the printed Chronicle.