Russian in addition to other majors

[Devin P Browne]

While I think there is great value in learning Russian just for the fun of
it, the majority of undergrad students out there are not usually
like-minded.  They have been sold on the idea that college = getting a
"good job."  Fine, whatever.  I humbly believe that college is a learning
and growing and life experience, and the job stuff will come sooner or
later, depending on the individual student and how driven he or she is
toward a career.

With this in mind, I think it's more important these days to accept the
fact that more and more learners of Russian in college are *not* going to
be Russian majors.  Therefore, undergrad programs of Russian and Slavic
languages need to build strong relationships with other university
departments and schools, such as business programs, engineering programs,
the "hard" sciences, etc.   I just finished a week-long internship for
high school teachers in which teachers were placed in the "real world" to
better understand today's workforce.  I was placed in Pitt's Study Abroad
Office.  Aside from it being a great experience, I learned some things
which might be applicable to Russian programs at other universities.

First of all, the Study Abroad Office (SAO) *really* wanted to bring in
more students than just Arts & Sciences students.  The undergrad School of
Engineering was interested, but the trick was fitting a study abroad
program into a VERY strict and tight schedule.  By working together, the
SAO and the Engineering school developed a number of programs, including
summer programs in China and Mexico.  Suddenly, more and more engineering
students are interested in studying abroad!  The numbers have been growing
every year -- I think they tripled last year from the year before.

Perhaps if undergrad programs of Russian and Slavic languages furthered
these types of ties, both with a Study Abroad office in your own
institution, and with a professional school, as well as with an
institution abroad which is interested in developing ties, it could help a
program grow and become more stable.

I'm no higher ed administrator, but I imagine that higher numbers in
beginning and intermediate level language classes could then support
smaller numbers in advanced classes, right?

OK, one addendum, I guess.  I realize the above suggestion (which is just
one suggestion, nothing more) *does* require more work on the part of all
interested parties, with no compensation at first (well, for most
institutions, I would imagine -- I DO remember some things about working
in higher ed!).  But I think it could be one way of addressing this
problem of dwindling numbers in our programs.

Devin

Devin P Browne
dpbrowne+ at pitt.edu