Department name

[alan p. pollard]

It may be relevant that the Slavonic Division of the New York Public
Library changed its name a few years ago to the Slavic and Baltic
Division.  I don't know of any U.S. academic departments that have done
similarly.  -Alan Pollard, U. of Michigan, USA

On Fri, 20 Oct 1995, Jouko Lindstedt wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Here at Helsinki we have been discussing whether we should change the
> name of our department (which is said to be the biggest of its kind
> outside Slavic counries...). In English and Russian it is now
>
>     Department of Slavonic Languages
>     Otdelenie slavjanskix jazykov
>
> The problem is, first, that also Baltic languages are taught here (and can
> be chosen as a major subject) and, second, at least Russian literature is
> equally important in our curriculum as the Russian language.
>
> The alternative we have been considering is
>
>     Department of Slavonic and Baltic Studies
>     Otdelenie slavistiki i baltistiki
>
> Please tell your opinion -- how does this (and our old name) sound to
> your ear? And what is the official name of _your_ department? It's
> perhaps better to answer directly to me, not to the entire list.
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
> Jouko Lindstedt
> Department of Slavonic Languages, University of Helsinki
> e-mail: Jouko.Lindstedt at Helsinki.Fi or jslindst at cc.helsinki.fi
> http://www.helsinki.fi/~jslindst/
>
> PS. A separate problem is Slavonic/Slavic; but since we prefer British
> English, I assume we'll retain "Slavonic".
>