Klanderud's List & Onward!

[David J. Galloway']

I think the chief problem with SEELANGS is that despite all these wonderful
thoughts (and I DO think these discussions are worthwhile), I get the sneaky
feeling that we're preaching to the choir.  As one poster noted, there are a
lot of people out there who are not connected, even with email.  Guess who
isn't reading this message?

On another note, I wonder how many "budding Slavists" are out there reading
this.  I fall into this category, and my dominant emotion as programs
(including, most recently, my own at Cornell) fall under the axe is extreme
frustration.  Whereas my friends and I used to wish for a huge wave of
retirements which would grant us jobs (this was in the early 90's), nowadays
it seems that even if those retirements take place, the positions will not
"open" but will be simply cut from the budget entirely.  This has certainly
been the case at Cornell -- as I understand it we have had three professors
leave over the last decade, and not one has been replaced.  A program cannot
recover from this sort of continual drain.  It may have been the beginning
of the end of the program, at least in the administration's eyes -- but
whether it was part of a larger, more deliberate plan or not, the net effect
was still crippling.

My frustration comes from seeing these events and feeling utterly powerless
to prevent them.  Though I'm not bewailing the impotence of grad students in
their departments, since in some situations we have influence, when push
comes to shove the second half of our name ("student") is the truly
descriptive label.  It takes faculty to make real changes.

Part of this is just the simple desire to "have a go" at the problems, and
is probably motivated by the feeling that one can do better than others at
solving them.  But regardless, my feeling is that I'm keeping my eyes open
and dutifully preparing myself for a challenge which will never materialize
given the employment situation.  I consider myself an optimist at heart, but
even the most die-hard optimist starts to doubt after seeing program after
program make that dreaded cry for assistance on SEELANGS or in the AATSEEL
newsletter.

This may be just a roundabout way of saying that something needs to be done
to make the Slavic community even tighter so that it can react decisively
and authoritatively to these threats.  One part of this would be making sure
that everyone is aware, since at this stage it should be clear that everyone
has quite a lot to lose.  Talk is good; action is better.  And while
abstract discussions of what's wrong with the field and academia in general
may sound satisfying, it doesn't seem like they will fend off hungry deans.
As I believe Ms. Gerhart said, it's a numbers/enrollment problem.  Let's
pack the classes, have them beating down the door to learn about Slavic.
Then we can toss around notions of how the academy should be run. If we do
it the other way around, I don't think anyone will have much reason to worry
about how Slavic is taught in the university.  We need to show the world
(grandiose as it may sound) why we love this subject so much, and
communicate that emotion to the students.

That's why we're here in the first place.

Luck to all,


***************************************************************************
David J. Galloway
Slavic Studies
236 Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
(607) 272-8350
Email:  djg11 at cornell.edu

AATSEEL Intensive Language Programs page:
http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~aatseel/intensive-programs/index.html
Queries:  dgallo at clover.slavic.pitt.edu