> How long will there be English departments? For however long there will be people willing to pay tuition to enroll in one. Really, that's the answer to all q

> How long will there be English departments? For however long there will be people willing to pay tuition to enroll in one. Really, that's the answer to all questions in that form. No matter how worthy of independence a study might be, it exists or fails to exist primarily on the existence of a body of students willing to pay money to sit in those seats.* * speaking purely in terms of undergraduate programs here