Language programs terminated at SUNY-Albany

[Marcus Levitt]

Forwarded by M. Levitt
====
From: "Bowles, Brett C" <bbowles at albany.edu> ( mailto:bbowles at albany.edu )
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 16:12:30 -0400
Subject: French program terminated at SUNY--Albany

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today the seven members of the French faculty at SUNY--Albany (all tenured) 
were informed that by presidential decision, ostensibly for budgetary reasons,
the French program has been "deactivated" at all levels (BA, MA, PhD), as have
BA programs in Russian and Italian. The only foreign language program unaffected
is Spanish. The primary criterion used in making the decision was undergrad
majors-to-faculty ratio. We were told that tenured faculty in French, Russian,
and Italian will be kept on long enough for our students to finish their
degrees--meaning three years at the outside. Senoir faculty are being encouraged
to take early retirement. The rest of us are being urged to "pursue our careers
elsewhere," as our Provost put it.

Needless to say, the decision is personally devastating to those of us affected,
but it is also symptomatic of the ongoing devaluation of foreign-language and
other humanities program in universities across the United States. I'm writing
to ask for your help in spreading the word about this decision as widely as
possible and in generating as much negative media publicity as possible against
SUNY--Albany and the SUNY system in its entirety.

There is much background to add about how this decision was reached and
implemented, too much for me to explain fully here. Suffice it to say that the
disappearance of French, Italian, and Russian has resulted from an almost
complete lack of leadership at the Albany campus and in the SUNY system. Our
president, a former state pension fund manager, holds an MBA as his highest
degree, has never held a college or university teaching position, and has never
engaged in any kind of scholarship.

More disturbing still, due process was not followed in the decision-making
process. The affected programs were not consulted or given the opportunity to
propose money-saving reforms. Our Dean and Provost simply hand-selected an
advisory committee to rubber stamp the president's decision. The legalities of
the situation remain to be discussed with our union, UUP, but in the meantime I
welcome any advice you may have.


best,

Brett

Brett Bowles
Associate Professor of French Studies
French Graduate Program Director
State University of New York, Albany
bbowles at albany.edu<mailto:bbowles at albany.edu>



     

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