Russian language enrollement

[kathleen ahern]

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has been fighting the
enrollment battle for several years. I agree that small departments
have a difficult task ahead in these times of enrollment driven
administrative decisions. When I was hired full-time (non tenure track)
in 1999 (to replace a retiring tenured professor) I was told by our
administration that while it was nice I wanted to make an effort to
increase enrollments, Russian Studies at UNCG was on the decline and
it was unlikely there would ever be much growth, much less a tenure
track appointment. Our enrollments have been low, but have held
steady. I have 12 students in the first year course, about the same
in a second year course, and we had 9 students in third year this
fall, but only 3 in that group this spring.

I have just begun a tenure track appointment here this year, we have
hired two part time instructors who have excellent credentials. We are
moving ahead to improve our Russian Studies program, which is one of
our strengths. Our courses taught in English have also helped us to
stave off severe criticism and all three instructors are teaching in
broad university programs (Freshman Seminars and Residential College)
to increase awareness of Russian language and culture on campus.

Finally, one of the greatest assets I think we have is the very fact
that we ARE a small department. Students who enroll in Russian at UNCG
feel connected to a community, supported by their faculty, and are
less likely to withdraw from classes and/or fail.

I would encourage anyone who is struggling with these issues to contact
me off list. Best of luck!
----------------------
Kathleen Ahern, PhD
Department of German Russian and Japanese Studies
335 McIver Building
UNCG
PO Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402

336-334-5427 telephone
336-334-5885 fax
k_ahern at uncg.edu

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