Howard University students and educators protest elimination of classical studies department Howard University in Washington D.C. has declared its intention to liquidate the university’s Department of Classics—the program dealing with the study of ancient Greco-Roman history, literature and philosophy—by the fall. Students, alumni and educators at the college have denounced the move, drawing widespread support from around the world. The classics department at Howard University, established at the college’s founding in 1867, is the only classical studies program at a historically black college in the US. The department currently includes courses in Mythology, Latin, Love in Antiquity, and Ideas in Antiquity among others.