Brecht et al.'s report

[Benjamin Rifkin]

>Gee, and I thought that Richard Brecht's report attributed the 30%-50%
>*nationwide* decline in Russian enrollments to the diminished importance
>of Russia in the world's political and economic arenas.

Brecht et al.'s report claims that Russia remains of great importance in
the world's political and economic arenas and makes no suggestion that the
decline is due to any changes in Russia's status.  There may be a decline
in enrollments due to our students' perception of Russia as of less
importance in strategic terms, and it is our job to remind students (and
administrators) of the fact that Russia is as important a society (in
political, economic, and cultural terms) as it was in the Soviet era.

Ben Rifkin



**********************************
Benjamin Rifkin
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI  53706
(608) 262-1623; fax (608) 265-2814
e-mail:  brifkin at facstaff.wisc.edu