Language programs terminated at SUNY-Albany

[Stephanie Briggs]

This is horrible! *is angry* My first words to my husband upon reading this
email are unrepeatable.

Russian programs in Scottish schools (GCSE levels) are also being chucked,
which is just as bad; see here:
http://www.scotlandrussiaforum.org/keepschoolexams.html

Stephanie

*****************************
~Stephanie D. (Sures) Briggs
http://sdsures.blogspot.com/

Come have a look at my handmade knitted afghans and scarves!
THIRD SALE: 06/08/10!
http://warmochfuzzy.etsy.com/




On 2 October 2010 20:25, Ernest Sjogren <esjogren at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> M. Levitt,
>
> How may we disseminate this?  My brother, who is a NY state resident,
> voting district near Albany, would like to write his congresswoman about
> this, not in favor of the cuts, of course. He asks if he may forward Prof.
> Bowles' letter (w/ the correction of "senoir" to "senior").
>
> Ernie Sjogren
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcus Levitt" <levitt at COLLEGE.USC.EDU
> >
> To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 1:53 PM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Language programs terminated at SUNY-Albany
>
>
>
> 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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