Russian program at University of Alabama needs help

[Andrew M. Drozd]

Dear SEELangers:
      I am writing to the entire list because the Russian program at the
University of Alabama is coming under some very serious pressure from
the administration and I could use some help in saving it. First, let me
provide some background.
       The program has been struggling with just two full-time people
since the retirement of Ed Frost in 2001. The administration declined to
replace his position. Now the program has been targeted for further
reduction. The College of Arts and Sciences has decided to cut the
position of the instructor of Russian. This will leave me as the only
full-time person. In addition, A&S has also decided that it does not
want to preserve the major in Russian and will not file a waiver with
the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE). ACHE has mandated
that all programs in the state must graduate 7.5 majors per year or be
declared non-viable. In the last three-year period under review, we did
not have the required 23 majors. The process does allow for the filing
of waivers, but if the university does not file the waiver, ACHE will
automatically take away the major in Russian. I may be able to continue
with a minor in Russian, but that is not clear at this point.
    I have met several times with administrators regarding the program.
I have met more than once with the associate dean for Humanities, once
with the dean of A&S and once with the vice-president/provost. I thought
I had made some headway in meeting with the latter. She seemed to
receive my arguments quite well and even suggested that I meet with the
university president. However, after a week she e-mailed me to say that
interest was just too low. In addition, the president's office called to
cancel the meeting I had set up with him.
   There are many problems with the way in which this decision has been
made. First, there have been multiple violations of procedure and there
is evidence of conflict of interest. To begin with, we are currently
without a chair and the associate dean for the humanities of A&S is
functioning as our acting chair. This results in a clear conflict of
interest and leaves the department without any effective representation.
In making the decision to cut the position of instructor of Russian (and
also one instructor position for Chinese), the acting chair acted
unilaterally without any faculty input. When advised by the Executive
Council of our department that he must bring this before the faculty, he
refused to do so. These actions not only violate the UA Faculty Handbook
but also the governance document for our department. I have already
reported the matter to our Faculty Senate and our department is in the
process of drawing up an official protest over procedure. I should also
note that the combined actions of cutting the instructor position and
not filing a waiver with ACHE allow A&S to get rid of a program without
going through a departmental program review as mandated by the UA
Faculty Handbook. This matter also forms part of our protest and has
been reported to the Faculty Senate.
    I also question the arguments that the administration is using to
justify its decisions. First, it argues that we have low numbers of
majors and that some of our classes are underenrolled. There has been a
consistent discrepancy between the numbers that A&S uses and what we
know to be true. For example, one administrator recently claimed we had
only ten majors. I have looked into the matter and discovered that they
were ignoring double-majors. (Also, it must be noted, a few students had
not actually declared their majors yet. They have been strongly
encoraged to do so.) Likewise, in talking about underenrolled classes,
the administration consistently ignores the fact that many of our
classes are cross-listed and actual enrollment is higher.
    In talking about the economics of our program, the administration
also consistently ignores our high teaching loads. The instructor
position routinely teaches 13 hours per semester which is actually over
contract. In addition, the instructor handles all recruiting activities,
the Russian club, etc. Unlike most faculty on campus I usually teach
three courses per semester. One might also note that the salaries of
those in the Russian program are among the lowest on campus. If you add
my salary and that of the instructor together, it still doesn't equal
the average faculty member's salary on campus. All in all, the Russian
program at UA is a very cheap one. I can't stress enough that if these
decisions are implemented, all that UA will save is the salary of one
very poorly paid instructor.
    I could go on, but I don't want this message to get too long. If
anyone wants more details, I will be more than happy to provide them. I
can say that our students are doing all they can to help save the
program and we are in the process of contacting our alumni (NOTE: all UA
alumni please contact me!!!). I would ask that anyone who feels so
inclined to please write a letter of support for our program and send it
to our university president. His name and address follow below. Thank
you very much.

Sincerely,

--
Andrew M. Drozd
Associate Professor of Russian
adrozd at bama.ua.edu

Department of Modern Languages and Classics
Box 870246
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0246

tel. (205) 348-5720
fax. (205) 348-2042


_____________________
Send letters to:

Dr. Robert E. Witt
President, The University of Alabama
Office of the President
Box 870100
203 Rose Administration
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0100
(205) 348-5100
(205) 348-8377 (fax)
_____________________


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