Who will advocate for the next generation of heritage professionals? A cautionary tale for university preservation programs

Losing a historic structure is a sad thing. Losing generations of folks to expertly protect cultural heritage is much, much worse. This past week, Louisiana’s Board of Supervisors for higher education rubber-stamped a proposal from Northwestern State University of Louisiana to eliminate the university’s bachelor’s and master’s degrees in heritage resources just as these groundbreaking interdisciplinary programs were hitting their strides. The Master of Arts in Heritage Resources (MAHR) was on track triple its number of graduates in the next year.