When I went to the University of Michigan, our Engineering school had its own humanities department. This internal humanities department offered introductory level courses with smaller class sizes and faculty dedicated to teaching engineers rather than research. It was like having an embedded liberal arts school. As the article suggests, rather than eliminating humanities departments, by making these classes both required and well-taught, we earned knowledge that paid off handsomely once we entered the work world and took on roles that required more than technical skills.
In my experience, the courses I was forced to take in humanities were pretty much useless. There was the film class that 90% of the class slept through, or the mythology class that we all spent staring out the window.<p>Then there was the advanced CS classes that I missed out on because I had to take these random other classes. I would have been happy if my school had actually allowed me to take more relevant classes.