Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany
Beyer, Tom
beyer at MIDDLEBURY.EDU
Wed Oct 6 20:44:19 UTC 2010
279 now
Tom Beyer
On 10/6/10 4:33 PM, "Tony Anemone" <AnemoneA at NEWSCHOOL.EDU> wrote:
> I was number 261.
>
> Tony Anemone
>
>
>
> On Oct 6, 2010, at 2:23 PM, Michele A. Berdy wrote:
>
>> Now up to 22...
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Schillinger" <jschill at AMERICAN.EDU>
>> To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 10:17 PM
>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany
>>
>>
>>> I second Miichael's response! Only 7 have signed so far.......
>>>
>>>
>>> John Schillinger
>>> On Oct 6, 2010, at 2:13 PM, Katz, Michael R. wrote:
>>>
>>>> Great idea!
>>>>
>>>> Michael Katz
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
>>>> [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] on behalf of Josh Wilson [jwilson at SRAS.ORG]
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 2:02 PM
>>>> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
>>>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany
>>>>
>>>> http://www.petitiononline.com/SUNY/petition.html
>>>>
>>>> Assuming that Chuck and no one else objects, perhaps we could all send
>>>> this letter this way?
>>>>
>>>> Josh Wilson
>>>> Assistant Director
>>>> The School of Russian and Asian Studies
>>>> Editor in Chief
>>>> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
>>>> SRAS.org
>>>> jwilson at sras.org
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
>>>> [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Chuck Arndt
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 7:17 PM
>>>> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
>>>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Letter of Protest to SUNY-Albany
>>>>
>>>> Dear Colleagues:
>>>>
>>>> I want to thank everyone who posted on SEELANGS concerning the closing of
>>>> the French, Russian, and Italian departments at SUNY Albany. My
>>>> colleagues and I here at Union College were shocked and dismayed by the
>>>> news. As neighbors to SUNY Albany, many of us know, personally, the
>>>> modern-language faculty there and how incredibly dedicated they are. As
>>>> the Department Modern Languages and Literatures at Union College, we have
>>>> composed a letter to go both to the SUNY administration as well as state
>>>> senators and assembly members.
>>>>
>>>> The letter may undergo some last-minute changes, but I wanted to share it
>>>> with the SEELANGS community while the issue is still hot. People can
>>>> use the letter below as a template, point of reference, or do something
>>>> completely different -"дело ваше" как говорится. I hope, however, that
>>>> all of us will keep writing SUNY Albany and bombard the university with a
>>>> mass of feedback, which might cause them to reconsider. Writing state
>>>> senators and other policy-makers is also a great idea, as has been pointed
>>>> out (especially considering that, as has been pointed out, elections are
>>>> coming soon). If anyone has other ideas, please post them and I will try
>>>> to relay them to the rest of our department. Because SUNY Albany is the
>>>> flagship university for such a multi- ethnic state, we think this is a
>>>> battle worth fighting. Please see letter below:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Заранее блaгодарю!
>>>>
>>>> Charles Arndt
>>>> Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
>>>> Union College
>>>> Schenectady, NY 12309
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To the Administration of SUNY-Albany
>>>>
>>>> To local State Senators and Assembly
>>>> Members
>>>>
>>>> To the US Representative from the 21st
>>>> District
>>>>
>>>> To
>>>> Members of the Press
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We
>>>> at the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at Union College would
>>>> like
>>>> to express our concern and dismay at the decision recently taken up by the
>>>> president and his advisory board to eliminate French, Russian, and Italian
>>>> from
>>>> SUNY Albany’s curriculum.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Not
>>>> only are we concerned for our colleagues at SUNY Albany, whom we know to
>>>> be
>>>> dedicated professionals and committed to their students, but we are also
>>>> gravely disturbed by the irrevocable damage this would do to SUNY Albany’s
>>>> reputation and the students at SUNY Albany, to their opportunities, and to
>>>> their ability to succeed in our global environment. Furthermore, we feel
>>>> the decision
>>>> contradicts SUNY Albany’s stated values of diversity and “giving its
>>>> students
>>>> first-hand international experience” (SUNY’s Strategic Plan 2010, p. 19),
>>>> and
>>>> even its logo (until very recently) of “The World Within Reach.” As a
>>>> major
>>>> institution of learning, SUNY Albany’s reputation could very well slide
>>>> downward as a result of being unable to provide its students with skills
>>>> that
>>>> most other comparable universities provide.
>>>> Lastly, the way the decision was reached in no way allowed for students
>>>> or faculty to contribute to a decision which affects their futures.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As
>>>> a university representing a large section of New York State’s population,
>>>> SUNY
>>>> Albany has an obligation to prepare its students for our global
>>>> environment,
>>>> and this naturally includes the ability to speak and understand foreign
>>>> languages. According to the Académie
>>>> Francaise, the French-speaking world includes around 60 countries worldwide
>>>> (approximately 500 million people).
>>>> French is the international language of trade and business, one of the
>>>> major languages in the European Union, one of the eight UN languages, and
>>>> a
>>>> language spoken on five continents. Moreover, Canada is our country’s
>>>> largest
>>>> trading partner, with French-speaking Quebec (this one province alone) our
>>>> 6th
>>>> largest trading partner.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As
>>>> for Russian (which is also one of 8 UN languages), the move by SUNY
>>>> Albany’s
>>>> president comes at a time when the US State
>>>> Department and the US Department of Defense both recognize Russian as a
>>>> “critical need foreign language” and has begun awarding money through the
>>>> Foreign Language Assistance Program to secondary schools across the
>>>> country,
>>>> specifically in order to teach Russian and other “Critical Languages.” It
>>>> appears
>>>> SUNY Albany will not even be in the running regarding this national
>>>> initiative,
>>>> since it will not be able to continue the students’ Russian. Furthermore,
>>>> we
>>>> have been informed by our colleagues that this means there will be no
>>>> Russian
>>>> major anywhere in the SUNY system, a stunning fact for the Empire State
>>>> with
>>>> its internationalist orientation and large Russian population.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Lastly, for a major university not
>>>> to recognize the importance of Italian language simply seems inconceivable
>>>> in a
>>>> state with such a large Italian-American population, to say nothing of the
>>>> enormous influence of Italian culture on this state and the world.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We believe the actions of president of
>>>> SUNY Albany and his advisory board resulting in the destruction of entire
>>>> programs are unprecedented in their rashness and scope. They will severely
>>>> diminish their students’ competitiveness in a world that is becoming more,
>>>> and
>>>> not less, integrated. If these moves are
>>>> implemented, SUNY-Albany will be alone nation-wide among major universities
>>>> in
>>>> closing an entire French program, and nowhere in the entire system will a
>>>> student be able to have a Russian major.
>>>> We cannot see how SUNY Albany can propose to “send students abroad”
>>>> (SUNY’s Strategic Plan 2010, p. 19), without being embarrassed and ashamed
>>>> that
>>>> they will be some of the few students from a major university unable to
>>>> communicate with so many peoples of the world. We hope that the president
>>>> and
>>>> administration at SUNY Albany will reconsider this destructive action. We
>>>> hope that policy-makers in Albany will
>>>> take note of how much less competitive this will make students of this
>>>> great
>>>> state and will work to find a better
>>>> alternative to this unprecedented move.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Respectfully
>>>> Yours,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Prof.
>>>> Cheikh Ndiaye
>>>>
>>>> Chair,
>>>> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> For himself and
>>>> all 25 members of the Department in multiple language programs, unanimously
>>>> united
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>> John Schillinger
>>> Emeritus Prof. of Russian
>>> American University
>>> 192 High St.
>>> Strasburg VA, 22657
>>> Ph. (540) 465-2828
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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