Oregon State University to lose Russian -- please read

[Katya Hokanson]

Forwarded with permission from Vreneli Farber.

Katya Hokanson
University of Oregon

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Vreneli Farber <vreneli.farber at gmail.com>
> Date: June 13, 2009 5:12:00 PM PDT
> To: (recipient list edited)
> Subject: request for help via e-mail
>
> Dear Colleagues,
> I am writing because I need your help.
> I have spent hours and hours and hours on e-mail and in many  
> meetings trying to deal with a very bad situation.  Now I need your  
> help
>
> I apologize in advance for the fact that this e-mail is so long.   
> But the situation I describe below is complicated and requires some  
> explanation.  I hope that you will have the patience and generosity  
> to take the time to read my message carefully.  Thank you !!
>
> As you all know colleges and universities in Oregon (and throughout  
> the country ) are dealing with serious budget cuts for next year.   
> Here at OSU, every department in the College of Liberal Arts (not  
> to mention other colleges) will be affected.  Unfortunately, the  
> Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures (FL&L) will be  
> especially hard hit because, in addition to the college-wide cuts,   
> the department has been struggling to deal with a massive deficit  
> that was incurred in 2006-2007.
>
> In order to deal with this situation, the outgoing chair of FL&L,  
> J. Krause, produced a budget for next year that involves cuts in  
> all of the languages.  He also made the decision to cancel all  
> Arabic and Russian courses for next year.  This is the very bad  
> situation for which I have been trying to find a solution and this  
> is where I need your help.  Obviously, I think that cutting Russian  
> was not the way to alleviate budget problems – cuts elsewhere in  
> the departmental budget would have made much more sense.  There is  
> a Russian language minor at OSU, a Russian Studies minor, and the  
> option to major in Russian Studies through Liberal Studies.   
> Furthermore, the Russian culture and literature courses satisfy a  
> lot of Baccalaureate core requirements.
>
> As some of you know, I retired in June of 2008.  My colleague in  
> Russian, Scott Samuel,  who is 58, decided that he wished to retire  
> early.  He told Krause in the fall of 2008 that he wished to retire  
> in June, 2009.  He requested assurances that he would be replaced  
> and was given them.
>
> In January of this year I spoke to the new dean of CLA to impress  
> on him the importance of the Russian program for students in Oregon  
> and the importance of Russian in general in today’s world.  I also  
> spoke to Krause and gave him copies of the statistics I had given  
> the dean.
>
> I learned that Krause had suspended Russian for next year on May 16  
> of this year .  He did this with no consultation with me or Scott  
> Samuel.  The decision was made and communicated to the dean and the  
> entire foreign language faculty.  I was very alarmed.  I regret now  
> that I did not write to you at that time, but Krause told students  
> that Russian would be taught on the OSU campus through a  
> partnership with Linn Benton Community College.
>
> I have heard from the new chair of FL&L, S. Rivera-Mills, who  
> assumed the chairmanship June 1, that the partnership with LBCC has  
> fallen through.  This means that the only avenue being pursued by  
> the department is online courses.  I fear that this means the death  
> of Russian at OSU, because there is little guarantee that all the  
> students wishing to take Russian at OSU will do so online.  And if  
> the budget of FL&L does not improve dramatically next year, once  
> again the decision might be made to offer only online courses in  
> 2010-2011.  Eventually the enrollments in the Russian courses will  
> decline and possibly the administration will decide to eliminate  
> Russian altogether.
>
> If you have the time and inclination, I would greatly appreciate  
> your writing to the chair, the dean, the provost, and the president
> 1] to protest the suspension of Russian
> and
> 2] to explain the vital importance of Russian for students in Oregon
>
> Since I heard of the suspension I have spoken to Rivera-Mills  
> numerous times, but have not spoken to the other administrators.   
> It would be worth their hearing what you have to say; therefore, I  
> would appreciate enormously your e-mailing -- at a minimum – the  
> dean and provost in addition to the chair.
>
> Here are their names and addresses:
> chair: Susana Rivera-Mills – Susana.Rivera-Mills at oregonstate.edu
> dean: Lawrence Rodgers – Lawrence.Rodgers at oregonstate.edu
> provost: Sabah Randhawa – Sabah.Randhawa at oregonstate.edu
> president: Ed Ray – Ed.Ray at oregonstate.edu
>
> If you wish to write to the local newspaper, The Gazette Times,  
> here are two names and addresses:
> Kyle Odegard – kyle.odegard at lee.net
> Nancy Raskauskas – nancy.raskauskas at lee.net
>
> Thank you very very much for any help and support that you can offer.
> Sincerely,
> Vreneli
>
>


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