supply, demand, and Slavic studies

[Ernest Scatton]

The issue that David Birnbaum raises is a very important one. It geets
straight to the issue of the fit between the graduate training that
most Slavic departments that are still training Slavic linguists and
the "market." This questions is one that was raised at the 2020 panel
of AATSEEL a couple of years ago, one at which the absence of principals
at major linguistics PHD-granting institutions was noteworthy. My guess
is that if there are no changes and if present conditions continue for
a couple of years more, things will grow worse: the number of places
where Slavic linguists can find jobs will decrease, as will the number
of universities that will continue to support doctoral programs in the
field. The fact that Washington has chosen to "disperse" the department's
faculty should be a very clear indication of how administrations--pressed
by financial considerations or not--view languages and literatures. It
would be interesting to know how many other schools are considering
similar "restructuring", or have already carried them out. In Sept., '94
Slavic and German were merged at Albany. Continued declines in
overall enrollments and another bad budget year have the administration
seriously considering further consolidations, perhaps of all of the
departments. Rr is difficul to

Frankly, I am not sanguine that any representations from the outside would
deter our administrations, for, as one of them put it, "How many differnt
courses in literary theory have to be taught to classes of 4-5 students?"