Russian program at University of Alabama needs help

Mon Feb 16 16:09:57 UTC 2004

I want to assure all SEELANGers that I will be writing a letter in my
capacity as President of AATSEEL.

- Ben Rifkin

On Feb 16, 2004, at 9:59 AM, Andrew M. Drozd wrote:

> 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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*************
Benjamin Rifkin
Professor of Slavic Languages, UW-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706 USA
Voice (608) 262-1623; Fax (608) 265-2814
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slavic

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