Russian Studies

[Emily Tall]

At the State University of New York at Buffalo we did have a Russian studies
"special major" made up of courses in Russian plus others in poli. sci and
history. In recent years, however, the poli.sci. prof. has been saying that it
is better , for professional purposes, to have a major in a discipline, such as
political science, rather than in Russian studies. So then we had people
minoring in Russian. Emily Tall,

Lauren Leighton wrote:

> 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.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                 http://members.home.net/lists/seelangs/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                http://members.home.net/lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------