LANGUAGE BARRIER

When language professors at West Virginia University heard that the school planned to make cuts in their department, they braced for big changes. Maybe the university would reduce majors to minors or decrease the number of classes taught, they worried.

The proposed cuts were far more drastic than they ever anticipated. Last week, these faculty members learned the university plans to eliminate the entire department, putting at least 30 professors’ jobs at risk and ending language studies for WVU students.

It was an inconceivable decision, said Russian studies professor Lisa Di Bartolomeo.

“We were absolutely shocked,” Ms. Di Bartolomeo said. “No one had anticipated this as a possible outcome. It’s just unthinkable that our research 1, flagship, land-grant university would cut all language, culture and linguistics education.”

On Friday, WVU announced plans to eliminate 32 academic programs, merge or embed 15 others, and cut faculty positions in 22 departments as the university faces a $45 million deficit.

If the recommended cuts come to fruition, undergraduate students would no longer be able to study Spanish, French, German, Russian or Chinese, and graduate students could no longer pursue linguistics and English as a second language degrees. The university’s board of trustees will vote on the cuts in September.

It’s a decision that could have a detrimental impact on WVU faculty and students, as well as the state’s education system as a whole, said Kathleen Stein-Smith, a foreign language educator and advocate.

“It’s a real source of concern,” Ms. Stein-Smith said. “Languages are so important everywhere. They’re very useful in terms of global citizenship and the international workforce.”

WVU officials argue that declining enrollment and nationwide higher education trends brought on the demise of a language department.

“Through the previous and current program review process, the data showed that student interest in the [languages] programs is very low and declining,” part of a university news release reads. “This trend is not unique to WVU. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded annually across all areas of foreign languages, literatures and linguistics has declined 25% nationally and 30% in WVU’s primary recruiting states between 2010-2021.”

It’s true that enrollment in WVU’s language department has fallen. Between fall 2020 and fall 2022, the department saw a 28% drop in its undergraduate enrollment, to 65 majors from 91.

But that drop doesn’t show the full picture. Department leaders expect to enroll 88 undergraduate majors this fall — a number nearly on par with 2020 numbers. The reported enrollment decline also fails to provide the context that enrollment is decreasing university-wide.

And, despite enrollment drops, the language department regularly generates nearly $1 million in profit for the university, according to department data.

As the university plans to eliminate its language department, it’s also reviewing plans to end the language requirement. WVU currently offers language courses in its general education curriculum.

School officials have justified the requirement elimination by pointing to other universities that have ended their language requirements, such as Duquesne University and Johns Hopkins University. Both schools still offer language courses.

If WVU’s department and requirements are eradicated, WVU students’ only option of learning another language would come from an alternative method of delivery, the release says. School officials are tossing around the idea of partnering with an online language app or fellow Big 12 university in place of in-class language opportunities, the release says.

“Today’s students are open to different methods of instruction and learning,” WVU President Gordon Gee said in the statement. “To be a modern land-grant university, we must provide modern ways of delivering content that they find meaningful and relevant.”

But WVU faculty say app instruction isn’t the same as collegiate curriculums. Jonah Katz, an associate professor of linguistics, believes Mr. Gee’s statement makes the university look “ridiculous.”

“WVU is going to be an international laughingstock,” Mr. Katz said.

Faculty members also argue that language departments are invaluable in teaching students soft skills and bulking the knowledge of those pursuing degrees like international relations, banking, health care and education.

“Foreign language education encourages employability characteristics that employers have themselves identified such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills [and] resource management,” Ms. Di Bartolomeo said.

Language courses also offer a public service to the citizens of West Virginia, proponents say. According to Ms. Di Bartolomeo, WVU is currently the only university in the state that offers courses in Arabic, Chinese and Russian: languages that the U.S. government has labeled “critical.”

And language departments help train the next generation of teachers. If WVU slashes the department, Ms. Stein-Smith worries that could harm K-12 education in West Virginia.

“They’re cutting their pipeline for prospective language teachers,” Ms. Stein-Smith said. “This is a double whammy for the students of West Virginia.”

Department faculty don’t plan to go down without a fight. Leadership plans to appeal the university’s decision, and an online petition to keep the department has over 15,000 signatures.

If an appeal isn’t successful, language professors will learn in September whether WVU’s board of trustees is sympathetic to their pleas for survival.

Ms. Di Bartolomeo believes survival is crucial for the future of WVU students.

“I think the effects of [elimination] will be absolutely detrimental to the students of West Virginia and any student who chooses WVU,” she said. “They will be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to employability [and] when it comes to competing with other people who’ve come from other institutions that give them a full liberal arts education and training.”