Like Cornell, Northeastern has been re-examining its academic structure in the wake of economic problems. Today, they took a major step in restructuring the University, converting two colleges into three.

The year was 2008 and Cornell was prospering. With the University safely past the halfway point in its $4 billion capital campaign and reporting double-digit returns on its endowment, top administrators were terming the era a “golden age” in higher education.

Little did Cornell — and the rest of the world — know what was in store next.

For all the havoc that it has inspired, the recent economic crisis has engendered at least one positive development: humanities majors and like-minded literati have been able to make full use of the word schadenfreude. The German term, defined by the OED as “malicious enjoyment of the misfortunes of others,” has been so frequently invoked in recent months that The New York Times’ deputy news editor was forced to advise writers to lay off of it. But overuse is to be expected — these days, intellectuals have few occasions to rejoice.