Advertising Slavic Languages (was Re: alarm)

[Andrew M. Drozd]

Stephen Bobick wrote:

>
> Perhaps Slavic Languages could be advertised in a similar manner:  mailings
> to incoming freshman, flyers included in orientation and information packets
> in dorm rooms, flyers handed out during freshman orientation, posters and
> flyers plastered all over campus at appropriate locations, etc.  I think
> some of thses approaches would be especially effective for schools with
> a language requirement.
>

Stephen is quite right here: advertising during freshman orientation
helps greatly with enrollments. Here at University of Alabama we did
not experience the big drop in enrollments in Russian until this
year. In previous years one of our instructors had been allowed to
talk to the incoming freshman at their orientation sessions and our
enrollment remained high. However, we were excluded from the
sessions this year and enrollment dropped greatly.
  Although Stephen's suggestion is a great idea, it will probably be
very difficult to implement due to resistance from the powers that
be. The faculty here has tried for years to get some type of
handout/flier distributed to the incoming freshman as part of their
information packets. A blunt "no" has always been the answer. We are
usually given the excuse that if this is done for Russian then all
the other languages will insist on equal treatment. There have been
some attempts in the past to put up a united front for all
languages, but as is to be expected, French and Spanish, generally
got all the publicity and the benefit.

--
Andrew M. Drozd
adrozd at woodsquad.as.ua.edu

Dept. of German and Russian
Box 870262
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0262

tel (205) 348-5055
fax (205) 348-2042