Donning backpacks and baseball caps, 20 Stevens Institute of Technology students gathered on a recent icy Thursday afternoon in the Pierce Building on River Street in Hoboken – but not to discuss fluid mechanics or the hot new computer language Java. They were listening to Prof. Edward Foster comb through the finer points of Baudelaire’s selected poems. If this seems odd, it shouldn’t. Stevens Institute is a technical school – specifically renowned for mechanical engineering and computer science – but beginning in 1989, the university has also offered a bachelor of arts in humanities. Founded in 1870, Stevens was originally modeled after the French technical school, where liberal arts, known in France as belles lettres, were an integral part of the core curriculum. As a result, Stevens has always placed a strong emphasis on the humanities. While most technical schools require students to take six humanities courses, Stevens requires undergraduates to take eight. In the late 1980s, the humanities program expanded. Under the tutelage of Stevens’ current President Harold Raveche, in 1989 the university created an official bachelor of arts certificate program offering three major fields of concentration: English and American literature, philosophy and history. To earn a B.A., students are required to take ten courses in their major field and write a senior thesis. “[Raveche] liked the concept of a well-rounded education,” said history professor Geoff Clark, who is currently working on a manuscript about the history of Stevens. “He talked about the Renaissance engineer and thought a B.A. program would be a bridge between the humanities and the scientific and technical cultures. It was in this context that he created the B.A. program.” Most Stevens students earn their B.A. along with a science or technical degree. There are, however, a few students who have studied humanities exclusively. Since the program’s incipience, 22 students have majored in literature, 13 in history and nine in philosophy. Brian Nolte, a senior, is currently working towards a sole degree in literature. “Originally, I was a double major in English and engineer management,” said Nolte. “But last year I decided to just study English.” Nolte, who is writing his senior thesis on the 12th Century French Romantics, seemed unfazed that out of approximately 1,650 undergraduates, he is the only student currently studying literature exclusively. He did admit that he often neglects to tell his classmates that he dropped out of the engineer management program. “I think there is a little bit of an air of superiority from the other students,” he said. “It’s well-concealed, but it’s there, underneath the surface. You get that ‘Oh, you’re an English major’ condescending look.'” Nonetheless, Nolte does not regret his decision. “The humanities department is great,” he said. “All of the professors are well educated and come from well-respected schools. They take their job seriously because they realize that for a lot of students this is the only humanities they are going to get, so they want to make sure they come out with some skills. They are all well-published and dedicated to their craft.” Like humanities majors, humanities professors are a small minority at the school. But while teaching English or history amidst a sea of scientists may seem lonely – only 10 out of the school’s 150 teachers are humanities professors – the small community can sometimes work to an academic’s advantage. “My original field was European history,” said Clark, who has been teaching at Stevens since 1972. “At a big university I would have to teach a narrow two centuries of history. Working here gives me the opportunity to teach a variety of courses. I’ve even taught a course on the history of technology. And the students are receptive to history, they really seem to enjoy it.” “[The professors] have very different research interests,” said Deborah Sinnreich-Levi, an English professor who specializes in fourteenth-century French poetry, particularly the works of Eustach Deschamps. “But as a department we offer students a rich variety.” Since she started teaching at the University in 1984, Sinnreich-Levi has advised dozens of seniors on their thesis projects. Over the years she’s seen projects that range from a traditional study of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” to a textual analysis of Ann Rice novels entitled, “The Vampire as Metaphor for Twentieth Century Society.” “The students are very sharp,” she said. “The recognize that humanities is a cerebral holiday for them. They are doing interesting and challenging work that isn’t science and engineering.” Edward Foster, the university’s resident poetry expert, has worked at Stevens for 30 years. Lined with dozens of editions of Norton Anthologies and books like Beowulf to Beatles, his office on Sixth and River streets exudes erudition. “I’ve always been allowed to design my own classes, even when I first started,” said Foster. “As a junior member of the faculty, that is fairly uncommon.” Foster did acknowledge the limits of teaching English at a technical school. “If you’re teaching at other institutions, the students are much more engaged,” he said. “Most students here don’t really challenge you in quite the same way. But Stevens has always been extremely competitive and attracted great students. So when they do become interested in the material they are intellectually very sharp and capable.” Foster is not only a tenured professor, but he is also the founder and publisher of Talisman, a Jersey City-based poetry and literary criticism publishing house. “The question, ‘Why I stay at Stevens?’ gets asked all of the time,” he said. “My first few years here I did think that I might want to move. It would be great to teach at Dartmouth. But would you want to spend your life in New Hampshire? Geography played a large role in my decision to stay.” Because of Stevens’ proximity to Manhattan, the University has been able to attract many well-respected literary figures who live or work in New York City. Ted Berrigan, one of the founding members of the St. Mark’s Church Poetry Project, an artists’ collective in Manhattan, taught at Stevens in the early 1980s along with Anne Waldman, the Project’s first director. Stevens is also renowned throughout the academic world for hosting cultural events like public lectures and poetry readings. Over the years, prestigious poets like Allen Ginsburg and William Bronk have held readings at the school. “People who teach here tend to be well-known and accomplished scholars,” said Foster. “The students don’t always know how lucky they are.”