Russian Studies

[Lauren Leighton]

While at Northern Illinois University in the 1970s I introduced a
comprehensive Russian studies program based on my graduate training at the
Indiana University Russian and East European Institute and previous
experience as a teacher in such programs at two other institutions. Because
of the way NIU's curriculum was designed, it became easy for Russian majors
to earn a double-major B.A. degree with another discipline. I can say the
program was a success to the degree that departments of history and
political science greatly improved their FTEs and increased enrollments by
ca. 80-90 majors over the next several years. However, neither these or any
other department in those anti-language days sent us a single major. And in
fact, due to the competitive atmosphere at a time of severe budget cuts,
students in those departments, including Russian studies majors, were
privately urged NOT to take Russian courses which were deemed too competive
with conceivably analogous courses in other disclipines. I continue to
believe that Russian studies programs are intrinsically valuable, and in
fact should always have been a component offering of any undergraduate
program. But the fact remains that, historically, they have added numbers to
other departments, but not to language departments. And if colleagues in
other disciplines do not agree with the value, and in fact the necessity, of
language study for their students, such programs ought to be considered
cautiously. Please do not take this as a note of discouragement. Quite the
contrary, Russian and other interdisciplinary programs are important in
their own right. But my experience prompts me to suggest careful attention
to how such programs ought to be introduced and managed.

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