Apology and retraction

[clark troy]

Dear seelangovstsy,

I would like to apologize for my alarmist posting to the list with regards
to the Slavics Department at Duke.  I have received a response from
Professor Lahusen of Duke, which I append below.

-------
In response to the rumors recently posted on the SEELANGS network, the
graduate program of the Duke Department of Slavic Languages and
Literatures has not been "disbanded." What has been decided is that it
will not accept new applications of graduate students before the
appointment of new faculty. In short, the department is alive and so is
Thomas Lahusen (at Duke).

Thomas Lahusen
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Duke University
Box 90259, Durham, NC 27708-0259
Phone: (919) 660-3144   Fax: (919) 660-3141
e-mail: lahusen at acpub.duke.edu
----------

Needless to say, I was overjoyed to receive this news, and to learn that
the situation at Duke was considerably less grave than I had been led to
understand.  Indeed, this was precisely the kind of thing I hoped to hear.

However, although I regret that I may have sowed undue apprehension with
my somewhat loose-trigger posting, I nonetheless feel that this list is an
appropriate place for discussion of such issues.  Although mild
retrenchment on the part of a given university administration is obviously
less disturbing than the wholesale eradication of a Russian or Slavics
dept, it is still indicative of our relative institutional status within
the academy as a whole.

Over the last week or so I have spoken to several fellow graduate students
who expressed to me their more or less firm intentions of leaving the
field on account of the abysmal job prospects.  In such an atmosphere, it
behooves us to be informed of whatever is going on which might affect our
decision-making processes.  In any case, more information is better than
less.

Clark Troy
Dept. of Slavic Languages
Columbia University