Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany

Wed Oct 6 21:12:59 UTC 2010

Dear SEELANGERS:

Wow!  Big thanks to Josh Wilson and everyone who has signed so far!  What a great idea!  I signed -  I'm number 315 or 316.   

Very Sincerely Yours,

Charles Arndt 

--- On Wed, 10/6/10, Josh Wilson <jwilson at SRAS.ORG> wrote:

From: Josh Wilson <jwilson at SRAS.ORG>
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2010, 2:02 PM

http://www.petitiononline.com/SUNY/petition.html 

Assuming that Chuck and no one else objects, perhaps we could all send this letter this way? 

Josh Wilson
Assistant Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor in Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
SRAS.org 
jwilson at sras.org

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Chuck Arndt
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 7:17 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany

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

--

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------