Drake Univ./David Maxwell and Pat Chaput's post

[Patricia Chaput]

On Sat, 16 Jun 2001, Emily Tall wrote:

> Dear all: In regard to David Maxwell, Drake University, and the
> Chronicle's coverage, I'm not sure what Pat had in mind when she
> referred to him...

Perhaps my point was not stated clearly enough.  I wrote:  " Please note
that my point does not depend on the truth of whether or not David Maxwell
relied on personal history, but rather that the belief in the sufficiency
of personal history as a basis for decision-making in language is both
widespread and dangerous in its possible consequences."  That is, clearly
the writers of the Chronicle article thought that personal experience was
a reasonable basis for decision-making, since they made it part of their
article.  Of the dozens of individuals who participated in the Colloquy,
_many_ cited personal experience as the basis for their opinions (whether
in support of the Drake action or opposed to it), so they too believed
personal experience to be sufficient.
        I was not concerned with the role of David's personal beliefs in the Drake
decision; I did want to point to the likelihood that many who played a
role in this decision, whether members of the Faculty Senate or other
faculty and administrators at Drake, in all likelihood were influenced by
their personal experiences.  So too were many who reacted in writing to
this decision.   So too are our own colleagues and administrators who
control the fates of language departments in a multitude of post-secondary
institutions.
         My point is that whether or not it happened at Drake, reliance on
personal experience is widespread in college administrations (and not just
regarding foreign language).  Having spent 25 years in three universities,
having been involved in administration and decision-making for most of
that time, and having spent untold hours in committee meetings on topics
both within and far outside of my areas of expertise, I have heard
personal experience cited again and again as a basis for all kinds of
opinions and decisions.  I also know how little patience faculty have for
spending hours reading and researching topics that are outside of their
areas.  It is not unusual for faculty to participate in decision-making in
areas that are completely outside of their own areas of expertise, and in
fact in many cases the participation of "outsiders" is a requirement.
        My discussion was intended to serve as a caution.  Whenever and
wherever faculty who teach language do not support opinions with evidence
from research and scholarship, do not persistently articulate the content
of what they do in an effort to reeducate their colleagues, do not insist
on the centrality of understanding language and culture to the educational
mission of their institutions, do not articulate the integration of
language with other college subjects, or allow themselves to be isolated
in any form, and so on and so forth, then "the default" basis for many  of
the opinions that affect them is likely to be the personal experience of
the individuals charged with the decision-making (whoever they might be).
If that personal experience was negative, then opinions and decisions are
likely to be unsupportive of language and culture departments.
        When a department that should be central to the mission of an
institution is eliminated, something is wrong.  When so much of the
discussion surrounding that decision cites personal experience, we have to
worry.  If a physics department were in trouble, would we expect Colloquy
participants to argue their opinions based on "when I studied physics"?
But when a language department is in trouble, people do just that.  We
have evidence.  Just read the Colloquy.  We all need to be worrying not
only about who speaks for language, but _how_ we argue its importance.

Pat Chaput

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