Foreign language students at UCSC and the faculty who teach them are up in arms over a decision by the school to cut back on foreign language instruction.
Foreign language students at UCSC and the faculty who teach them are up in arms over a decision by the school to cut back on foreign language instruction. On Wednesday they gathered outside the Administration Building to protest plans to revamp and possibly eliminate their programs in order to meet state budget cuts. The university is looking for ways to handle either a 5.5 or 11 percent budget cut in the coming academic year. A task force that focused on the Department of Humanities has offered a number of suggestions, including the elimination of lower-enrollment language programs and limiting language enrollment to students who need them for degree requirements.
Among the programs on the chopping block are Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Russian, Japanese, and Portuguese—languages spoken by some of the nation’s top economic competitors. Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, also has strategic value with the U.S. engaged in war in the region. Programs teaching it at UCSC are privately funded.
Dean of Humanities Georges Van Den Abbeele gave his support to Wednesday’s protesters. Though he admitted that students could learn these languages anywhere, “it’s not ideal. I’d rather expand languages, especially with the globalized world we’re in now.” Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
