Language programs terminated at SUNY-Albany

[Richard Robin]

I understood this message to mean that the language *majors* will be
disbanded. Does that mean that all language instruction (outside Spanish) is
also being chucked? If not, then who will staff the remaining basic language
courses? Part-timers? And what does that mean for the AAUP if tenured
professors are not offered those courses ahead of PTs?

-Richard Robin

On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 1:53 PM, Marcus Levitt <levitt at college.usc.edu>wrote:

> 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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-- 
Richard M. Robin
Director Russian Language Program
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
202-994-7081

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