Literature, Culture and Languages to meet today to discuss elimination of individual majors 

The Literature, Culture and Languages Department will meet today from 1:15 p.m. to 2:30 pm to discuss the elimination of all individual majors in the department, according to an email from a department head.  

A university spreadsheet covering enrollment numbers by department lists the following as individual majors within the department: American Sign Language and Deaf Culture, Arabic and Islamic Civilizations, Asian Studies, Chinese, Classics & Mediterranean Studies, European Studies, French, German, Int between ASL & ENGL, Italian Literary & Cultural Studies, Judaic Studies, Literary Translation and Spanish. 

Provost Anne D’Alleva asked the department to make a plan regarding low enrollment majors, according to an email sent to all LCL faculty members by department head Jennifer Terni. University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz commented on this in a written statement. 

“The process does not target any particular disciplinary field and makes no assumptions about the programs,” Reitz said. “Being included in the process does not signal anything other than the fact that the programs’ enrollment and completions were below the threshold that initiated the review process.” 

Terni called for an emergency department meeting today in an email sent out to all faculty in the department. 

“The Executive Committee has also agreed that there are basically three potential ways forward: the first is to retain the majors, with all sections except Spanish undergoing the review process. The second is to adopt the Dean’s suggestion to create a single major. And the third is to propose two majors, one in Spanish and one in LCL, with the provision that should the two-major solution not garner enough votes (or should the Provost reject it), we will fall back on the one-major solution,” the email reads. 

Spanish has more majors within the department than any other major in the department, according to a university spreadsheet, which shows Spanish having a five-year enrollment average of 147 minors, 21 primary majors, 27 dual majors and 22 double majors. 

The email goes on to state that a department meeting will be held today in accordance with parliamentary procedure to discuss a department plan and take formal votes. She states that a plan will be submitted to the dean’s office based on those formal votes. 

“At this point everyone should have a good sense of how little latitude we have for delay,” Terni said in the email. “[Associate Dean Evelyn Tribble] wrote that it would be “extremely dangerous” not to submit a plan, and that the Dean’s office will need ours in 10 days.” 

According to the email, a non-binding poll to show department member preferences was meant to be sent out on Monday ahead of the meeting. The email goes on to give a deadline for the LCL to create a plan. 

“The Executive Committee has conceded that the Dean’s office will need a fairly concrete formal plan in writing about our intentions by the week of October 21.” 

Reitz said that the provost wanted to address the challenges of low enrollment departments. 

“To be clear, the Provost’s Office and University are not directing that the programs be closed or the majors be ended,” Reitz said. “Rather, it is asking deans and department heads for their ideas on how to address the challenge of low-enrollment programs.” 

Reitz gave suggestions for how this could be done, including working to increase enrollment through Early College Experience, updating curriculum or combining majors. 

“Any decision to sunset a major would be made in collaboration with deans, department heads, and faculty,” Reitz said. “The University and Provost’s Office rely on the expertise of those most directly connected with the programs and is not imposing solutions from the top or mandating specific changes.” 

Spanish professor Rosa Helena Chinchilla said that prospective students would not see individual languages as majors, meaning that they might be deterred from taking a course in a language at UConn. 

“By doing that, you’re essentially making anything having to do with Spanish invisible,” Chinchilla said. “So as a Latino member of the Latino community and this university since 1990, that’s appalling. And to me, it’s discrimination.” 

Reitz responded to questions regarding cuts in a written statement. 

“We value the LCL department and believe language study is essential to our strong identity as a global university,” Reitz said. “However, we also know that students are turning away from language study all around the country, and low enrollment in those areas is an issue beyond UConn.” 

Chinchilla discussed the risks involved in voting against the dean’s suggestion to create a single major. 

“The threat is if we don’t comply, if we don’t agree to this melding of all of us into one department with just one name and majors that are concentrations or minors, then we won’t have new hires for professors who retire or professors who leave for other reasons and this way they destroy these programs,” Chinchilla said. “The implicit threat is that there will be no more hires in your section because you refuse to cooperate on this issue.” 

Chinchilla said that the university destroyed their Portuguese program in a similar way, by not hiring a replacement Portuguese professor. 

“I ask myself, what is their end? To get rid of the humanities in this university?” Chinchilla asked. “They don’t understand the value of a humanities degree.” 

Reitz said that UConn would continue to collaborate with the LCL. 

“We look forward to working with the department and college on their ideas about how to ensure UConn offers robust, dynamic language programs as part of our mission to provide a world-class education,” Reitz said.