The World Within Reach?
An Open Letter Regarding the Termination of
French, Italian, Russian, Classics, and Theater at SUNY Albany


On October 1, 2010, the State University of New York at Albany announced
the termination of all degree programs in French (BA, MA, PhD), Italian
(BA), Russian (BA), Classics (BA), and Theater (BA) by presidential order.
President George Philip has officially suspended new admissions to all of
the above programs. A bill recommending the "deactivation" of these same
programs is said to have been delivered to the Faculty Senate. The
Senate's vote on this matter is advisory only. President Philip has the
power to enforce the deactivation order unilaterally.

The passage of "deactivation" would erase all courses in these disciplines
from the curriculum of the university and result in the termination of
twenty full-time teaching positions, fourteen of which are held by tenured
professors. There are currently 161 students enrolled in these degree
programs as majors, 140 undergraduates and 21 graduate students. There are
currently 240 declared minors in these degree programs. It should be added
that the affected programs currently have a total of 2,038 students
enrolled in their courses. All data are taken from the PeopleSoft tracking
system used by the university registrar.

The Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education has informed declared
undergraduate majors and minors that they have until May 2012 to complete
their programs of study. Those who cannot are being encouraged to find a
new program of study or to transfer credits and pursue their programs at
another institution. At the graduate level there has been no timeline for
completion established. Intended undergraduate majors who have formally
declared that intent are being required to file individual appeals
demonstrating that they expect to finish their majors by May 2012.
Graduate students have been told only in general terms that there will be
opportunities for them to finish their degrees. Affected undergraduate and
graduate students were notified to this effect without faculty knowledge
and in some cases convened to meetings without faculty representation by
their program director.

In his e-mail and web announcement of the terminations, President Philip
stated that they are necessitated by large budget cuts suffered by the
university over the last several years. He adds that "this decision was
based on an extensive consultative process with faculty, and in
recognition that there are comparatively fewer students enrolled in these
degree programs." [http://www.albany.edu/news/9902.php?WT.svl=news] The
phrases "extensive consultative process with faculty" and "comparatively
fewer students" are open to interpretation. It is crucial to clarify
exactly to what extent faculty in the terminated programs were consulted,
as well as how enrollments in the terminated programs compare to those in
other degree programs.

Affected faculty attended large "Town Hall" meetings that addressed in
very general terms the ongoing budget crisis, the necessity of making cuts
across the university, and the principles that would guide these cuts.
Within the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS), home to all the terminated
programs, there were also meetings of all the CAS department chairs
convened by the CAS Dean. At this level the discussions were also general,
emphasizing the necessity of cuts and identifying general principles for
making them. In none of these collective meetings was the idea of
eliminating degree programs discussed. However, on April 28, 2010 chairs
were asked to submit individual recommendations to this effect on a
confidential basis, as noted in the minutes of the Council of Chairs
meeting. [http://www.albany.edu/cas/chair_council_minutes.shtml] To date
the results of this "polling" have not been made public.

The next phase of consultation consisted of three ad-hoc committees, known
as Budget Advisory Groups (BAGs). These groups were composed of faculty
members whose participation was solicited individually by CAS and the
University Provost. No members of the eliminated language programs
received invitations to participate in any of the BAGs. In its public
meeting, none of the BAGs recommended program terminations.
[https://portal.itsli.albany.edu/myuadocs/EP-BAG3-Report-Final-Report-for-campus.pdf
- this is a secure MyUAlbany link for faculty and staff]

At no point between April 28, 2010 and Friday, October 1, 2010, was any
member of the terminated programs consulted regarding the administration's
plans. On October 1 the faculty of each terminated program were summoned
to separate meetings with the CAS Dean and University Provost, who
presented them with the accomplished fact. Our first knowledge of the
program eliminations came at separate meetings with the CAS Dean and
University Provost. Despite the fact that French, Italian and Russian are
all housed in a single administrative unit, the Department of Languages,
Literatures, and Cultures, the chair of that department (a professor of
French Studies) was not invited to the meetings with Italian or Russian
faculty.

With regard to the timing of the terminations, it should be noted that
they were announced only days after the university formally received a
renewal of its accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher
Education, the unit of the Middle States Association of Colleges and
Schools that accredits colleges and universities in Delaware, the District
of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
[www.msche.org<http://www.msche.org>] The existence of a broad array of
humanities degree programs, particularly foreign-language programs, is a
crucial requirement for accreditation, which would have been much more
difficult, if not impossible, had the terminations taken place earlier.

As to the claim that these terminations are justified by "comparatively"
lower enrollments, it is worth noting that there are five other
undergraduate degree programs in CAS with lower ratios of majors to
full-time faculty (that is, tenured, tenure-track, and lecturers) than the
five terminated programs. This information is verifiable on the PeopleSoft
tracking system used by the university registrar.

The terminations will have serious, long-term consequences not only for
students enrolled in the affected degree programs, but also for students
across the university, the SUNY system, and high schools in New York
State. The disappearance of French, Italian, and Russian in particular
will make our graduates in all disciplines less competitive in a
globalized economy, especially international business. It will deprive
Franco-American, Italian-American, and Russian-American students of the
chance to enrich and maintain a crucial element of their cultural
heritage. It will significantly restrict the languages available for
undergraduates to complete their two-semester foreign language General
Education requirement, and put huge enrollment pressure on those languages
retained. It will impact even those students who have no immediate
interest in foreign language or theater classes. All the terminated
programs offer a range of courses in English that fulfill multiple General
Education requirements (particularly Humanities, Arts, Europe, Regions
Beyond Europe, Writing Intensive, and Oral Discourse) for all students.
Many students already have trouble finishing their degrees on time because
of limited General Education offerings, and this decision will restrict
student choice even more, extend the time it takes to get their degrees,
and cost them more in tuition.

The program terminations will also effectively terminate the
interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in Film Studies. The French, Italian
and Russian programs all offer multiple film courses in both the target
language and in English. These courses, combined with those offered in
Theater, constitute over half of the courses that count for the Film
Studies minor. Each semester faculty in the terminated programs contribute
courses that fulfill degree requirements in the Honors College, Latin
American and Caribbean Studies, Linguistics, Women's Studies, Medieval and
Renaissance Studies, and English. The new Globalization Studies major will
also be affected since 11 of its courses are being taught in the
terminated programs. Moreover, the major requires its students to take
four semesters of one or two foreign languages.

At the graduate level, these terminations will prevent students in the
School of Education from satisfying the New York State-mandated
requirements for K-12 teacher certification. The terminations will also
end the University in the High School (UHS) programs in French, Italian,
Russian, and Latin, thereby depriving the university of significant
revenue, preventing high-school students from earning credits for later
transfer to the university, and depriving the university of a key tool for
recruiting the best high-school students in New York.

In addition, the terminations will set a dangerous precedent for dealing
with future budget cuts on this campus and across the SUNY system
comprising twenty-two four-year colleges and universities. All the SUNY
schools have suffered devastating budget cuts in recent years, yet ours is
the only campus to deal with these cuts by eliminating entire degree
programs by presidential directive.

As entire programs disappear one by one, our university will quickly cease
to be a comprehensive, liberal arts university. It will no longer be able
to fulfill its mission as a designated SUNY "research center" alongside
Buffalo, Stony Brook, and Binghamton. SUNY Albany has long had a
reputation as the leading institution of higher education in the Capital
region. As a result of the administration's actions, the university's
national and international reputation has suffered a major blow.

We ask that you join us in protesting these terminations, asking the SUNY
Albany administration to reverse its decision, and opening a campus-wide
discussion about how to balance the budget without eliminating entire
degree programs.

There is a web petition that can be signed: [http://www.petitiononline.com/SUNY/petition.html],

as well as a Facebook web site: [http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=108346255894946].

Our administrators can be contacted directly at the following addresses:
George Philip, President: presmail@uamail.albany.edu;

Catherine Herman, Vice-President: cherman@uamail.albany.edu;  

Susan Phillips, Provost: provost@uamail.albany.edu; 

Edelgard Wulfert, Dean of Arts & Sciences: ewulfert@uamail.albany.edu.

Paper mail may be sent to their attention at University Administration Building,

State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222.


On behalf of the faculty of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures,
Jean-François Brière, Professor of French Studies and Chair of LLC