Last November, the Onion ran a headline that was quite humorous: “Underfunded schools forced to cut past tense from language programs.”
Last week, the Daily Trojan ran a headline that was quite unsettling: “German dept. has been disbanded.”
The department’s dissolution across town is yet another drastic marker in a nationwide trend affecting all levels of education, and it should be met with activism and outrage.
The cutting of funds to language (and arts) departments is akin to serving schoolchildren perfectly unbalanced breakfasts because fruit is not of immediate importance to the children’s functioning needs.
Of course, as the extended metaphor would have one believe, this fruit (education) is not only enriching, but also essentially necessary for proper nutritional (academic) development.
As funding for universities continues in free-fall, budgeting administrators must not turn to the arts or languages for de facto victims; restructuring should occur evenly across departments when the need be.
Language students here on the sunnier side of Los Angeles were discouraged to hear the news.
“I feel that this is yet another instance where USC proves to make poor decisions,” said Vivek Patel, a third-year geology student. “My experience in a German curriculum was both culturally sound and critical to maintaining sharp conversational skills.”
UCLA’s Germanic languages department, though hardly the largest department on campus, is holding 23 courses this quarter, from German 1 to German 375, with topics including “Hollywood and Germany” and “Old High German.” The department boasts both a major and a minor degree.
Patel, who took German 4 through German 6 at UCLA, said that his classes’ sizes averaged anywhere between 15 and 25 students.
While USC claims that basic language classes will still be offered while they are in demand, a great deal of cultural knowledge (and consequently, of the effects of German culture on Western thought) will be lost. It is precisely this type of knowledge that adds true value to a humanities-rich undergraduate experience.
According to the Daily Trojan article, other department heads have noted that their own departments would suffer because of the administration’s decision, which was apparently made without adequate consultation with faculty.
The article also quoted the current German department chair, Professor Gerhard Clausing as saying “I don’t need (USC) that badly, and I’m not going to work without sufficient support. You can’t have a workable department without replacing people who are leaving.”
Clausing’s decision ““ while of strong intent ““ is as yet of questionable effectiveness.
Perhaps it would be more comforting to German students if Clausing did not vow to quit and retire quietly, but to resist and vehemently protest the administration’s decision.
After all, Clausing is essentially mouthing the same viewpoint toward the college itself that the college is toward the German program: I don’t need you, so I’ll leave you.
Clausing should not be subject to an unappreciative administration, but he is presently a teacher and department chair and must act accordingly. For many of the students in the German program (and those who hope to be in it in the coming years), he is not only a scholar, but also a representative that should stay faithful to the ideals of professorship. That is, he should voice a far less abrupt, resigned position, and make some sort of promise of persistence not only to the administration, but also to students facing the elimination of a worthy field of study.
Sadly, our German-department-less friends across town are not the only students suffering. The College Board announced April 3 that it would be cutting its high school Advanced Placement Italian, Latin literature, French literature and computer science programs.
Choosing some prominent languages over others should only serve to outrage students and faculty. Languages should be valued equally, not only with other fields, but also with each other.
In a nation often seemingly ignorant of global issues, a survey of all languages can only benefit the modern American undergraduate student, especially given the pride placed on liberal arts. After all, if we cannot attain nuanced scholarship from our nation’s “best” universities, what will be left of our academic culture?
E-mail Makarechi at kmakarechi@media.ucla.edu.