email addresses for protest letters to SUNY-Albany
Anne L Lounsbery
anne.lounsbery at NYU.EDU
Wed Oct 6 16:14:45 UTC 2010
For those who would like to register their dismay at the dismantling of language programs at SUNY-Albany, here are email addresses for the university's President, Vice President, Provost, and Dean (though the one for the dean seems not to be working):
'presmail at uamail.albany.edu'; 'cherman at uamail.albany.edu'; 'provost at uamail.albany.edu'; 'cwulfert at uamail.albany.edu'
(President Philip, Vice President Herman, Provost Phillips, Dean Wulfert)
And thank you to Charles Arndt for forwarding the letter below.
Anne Lounsbery
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Study
Department of Russian & Slavic Studies
New York University
13-19 University Place, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-8674
----- Original Message -----
From: Chuck Arndt <chuckarndt at yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2010 11:18 am
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Dear Colleagues:
>
> I want to thank everyone who posted on SEELANGS concerning the
> closing of the French, Russian, and Italian departments at SUNY
> Albany. My colleagues and I here at Union College were shocked and
> dismayed by the news. As neighbors to SUNY Albany, many of us know,
> personally, the modern-language faculty there and how incredibly
> dedicated they are. As the Department Modern Languages and Literatures
> at Union College, we have composed a letter to go both to the SUNY
> administration as well as state senators and assembly members.
>
> The letter may undergo some last-minute changes, but I wanted to
> share it with the SEELANGS community while the issue is still hot.
> People can use the letter below as a template, point of reference, or
> do something completely different -"дело ваше" как говорится. I hope,
> however, that all of us will keep writing SUNY Albany and bombard the
> university with a mass of feedback, which might cause them to
> reconsider. Writing state senators and other policy-makers is also a
> great idea, as has been pointed out (especially considering that, as
> has been pointed out, elections are coming soon). If anyone has other
> ideas, please post them and I will try to relay them to the rest of
> our department. Because SUNY Albany is the flagship university for
> such a multi-ethnic state, we think this is a battle worth fighting.
> Please see letter below:
>
>
> Заранее блaгодарю!
>
> Charles Arndt
> Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
> Union College
> Schenectady, NY 12309
>
>
>
>
>
> To the Administration of SUNY-Albany
>
> To local State Senators and Assembly
> Members
>
> To the US Representative from the 21st
> District
>
> To
> Members of the Press
>
>
>
>
>
> We
> at the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at Union College
> would like
> to express our concern and dismay at the decision recently taken up
> by the
> president and his advisory board to eliminate French, Russian, and
> Italian from
> SUNY Albany’s curriculum.
>
>
>
> Not
> only are we concerned for our colleagues at SUNY Albany, whom we know
> to be
> dedicated professionals and committed to their students, but we are also
> gravely disturbed by the irrevocable damage this would do to SUNY Albany’s
> reputation and the students at SUNY Albany, to their opportunities,
> and to
> their ability to succeed in our global environment. Furthermore, we
> feel the decision
> contradicts SUNY Albany’s stated values of diversity and “giving its
> students
> first-hand international experience” (SUNY’s Strategic Plan 2010, p.
> 19), and
> even its logo (until very recently) of “The World Within Reach.” As a
> major
> institution of learning, SUNY Albany’s reputation could very well slide
> downward as a result of being unable to provide its students with
> skills that
> most other comparable universities provide.
> Lastly, the way the decision was reached in no way allowed for students
> or faculty to contribute to a decision which affects their futures.
>
>
>
>
> As
> a university representing a large section of New York State’s
> population, SUNY
> Albany has an obligation to prepare its students for our global environment,
> and this naturally includes the ability to speak and understand foreign
> languages. According to the Académie
> Francaise, the French-speaking world includes around 60 countries worldwide
> (approximately 500 million people).
> French is the international language of trade and business, one of the
> major languages in the European Union, one of the eight UN languages,
> and a
> language spoken on five continents. Moreover, Canada is our country’s
> largest
> trading partner, with French-speaking Quebec (this one province
> alone) our 6th
> largest trading partner.
>
>
>
> As
> for Russian (which is also one of 8 UN languages), the move by SUNY Albany’s
> president comes at a time when the US State
> Department and the US Department of Defense both recognize Russian as
> a
> “critical need foreign language” and has begun awarding money through
> the
> Foreign Language Assistance Program to secondary schools across the country,
> specifically in order to teach Russian and other “Critical
> Languages.” It appears
> SUNY Albany will not even be in the running regarding this national initiative,
> since it will not be able to continue the students’ Russian.
> Furthermore, we
> have been informed by our colleagues that this means there will be no
> Russian
> major anywhere in the SUNY system, a stunning fact for the Empire
> State with
> its internationalist orientation and large Russian population.
>
>
>
> Lastly, for a major university not
> to recognize the importance of Italian language simply seems
> inconceivable in a
> state with such a large Italian-American population, to say nothing
> of the
> enormous influence of Italian culture on this state and the world.
>
>
>
>
> We believe the actions of president of
> SUNY Albany and his advisory board resulting in the destruction of entire
> programs are unprecedented in their rashness and scope. They will severely
> diminish their students’ competitiveness in a world that is becoming
> more, and
> not less, integrated. If these moves are
> implemented, SUNY-Albany will be alone nation-wide among major
> universities in
> closing an entire French program, and nowhere in the entire system
> will a
> student be able to have a Russian major.
> We cannot see how SUNY Albany can propose to “send students abroad”
> (SUNY’s Strategic Plan 2010, p. 19), without being embarrassed and
> ashamed that
> they will be some of the few students from a major university unable
> to
> communicate with so many peoples of the world. We hope that the
> president and
> administration at SUNY Albany will reconsider this destructive
> action. We hope that policy-makers in Albany will
> take note of how much less competitive this will make students of
> this great
> state and will work to find a better
> alternative to this unprecedented move.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Respectfully
> Yours,
>
>
>
> Prof.
> Cheikh Ndiaye
>
> Chair,
> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>
>
>
> For himself and
> all 25 members of the Department in multiple language programs, unanimously
> united
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
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