measures to increase enrollments

[Benjamin Rifkin]

We are in the process of making some curricular changes in order to
increase enrollments (and reduce attrition) in our lower-division (through
fourth semester) Russian language program.

1) We have slowed down the pace of the grammar syllabus in all four
semesters in order to increase the amount of time dedicated to student to
each grammatical topic, so that students experience greater success with
each topic.  In addition, this leaves more time for cultural activities in
which our students have expressed great interest.  This measure was
implemented in the second-semester course in Spring 1995, and we did
experience a reduction in attrition from second-third semester this Fall
semester.  The pace was slowed in the first-semester and third-semester
courses this Fall, so we still do not have information on improved
attrition rates as a result of this step.

2) For the first time this fall, we offered two sections of first-semester
Russian which did not have class sessions on Fridays.  Instead, these
sections had a second hour of instruction on Thursdays (which became
"double days").  Students in these 4-day sections (M-Th at 9:55 and Th at
8:50 or 3:30; M-Th at 2:25 and Th at 8:50 or 3:30) thus have the same
number of contact hours (5) as students in the other sections of
first-semester Russian.  On Thursdays, students in these sections could
attend either of the two "second-hour" classes, but most, if not all, have
chosen to attend the second hour offered continguously with the regular
class hour.  The morning section attracted robust enrollment, while the
afternoon section did not.  In a survey of students in all first-semester
sections, the vast majority of students indicated that they would not
prefer such a 4-day option, if offered to them, for the second-semester
course.  Accordingly, we are not offering this option for the
second-semester course in Spring '96, but will offer it again for Fall '96
in first-semester Russian.  (The 4-day class was a very successful strategy
for increasing enrollments in Portuguese at our university.)

3) We have offered one-hour mini-classes entitled "Learn to Read Russian in
an Hour," which were advertised in student newspapers in order to demistify
the cyrillic alphabet.

4) We have reached out to high schools with a one-day outreach program on
campus featuring visits to Russian classes for students with previous
Russian-language instruction (very few in Wisconsin) and mini-classes for
students with no previous Russian-language instruction, as well as short
lectures and presentations on area studies topics by faculty members and
graduate students.

5) Our area studies center sponsors visits by graduate students to area
high schools to talk about area studies and language study.

6) We are in the process of proposing the following new courses, which we
will advertise broadly:

*Introductory Business Russian (parallel to first-year Russian)
*Intermediate Business Russian (parallel to second-year Russian)
*Advanced Business Russian (parallel to third-year Russian)
*Russian Culture (in Russian):  a sequel to the culture course in English,
which feeds the language classes.
*Contemporary Russian Politics in Russian:  team taught by faculty members
in Slavic and Political Science
*Russia's Image in Contemporary Film (taught in English)

7) We have reached out to colleagues in the business school, trying to show
them that there are jobs for students with interests in business and
expertise in Russian.  We have shown them job ads from Russian newspapers
(including the Moscow Times, for example).

8) We have sent mailings out to every incoming freshman describing our
department's offerings, its quality and the high quality of instruction in
our program in general, and the advantages of Russian-language study with
respect to careers related to business, journalism, law, and law
enforcement.

I would be interested in hearing from other SEELANGers as to what, if any,
strategies have proven successful on their campuses.

******************************************************************************
Benjamin Rifkin
Assistant Professor of Russian,
Coordinator of Russian-Language Instruction & Teacher Training
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI  53706

e-mail:  brifkin at facstaff.wisc.edu
telephone:  608/262-1623, 608/262-3498
fax:  608/265-2814