Axing languages and linguistics at West Virginia University
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From M. Paul Shore:
Article that appeared on the Washington Post website this morning (and is therefore likely to appear in tomorrow's print edition) about the recently proposed demise of, among other things, the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at West Virginia University's flagship Morgantown campus (note that that department name really should be something like "Department of World Languages and Literatures and of Linguistics", since "World" doesn't really apply to "Linguistics"):
Recently proposed demise of languages, linguistics at WVU (Morgantown)
WVU’s plan to cut foreign languages, other programs draws disbelief
Academic overhaul at West Virginia University, in response to budget deficit, outrages faculty and students
Nick Anderson , WP (8/18/23)
A proposal from West Virginia University would discontinue 32 of the university’s 338 majors on its Morgantown campus and eliminate 7 percent of its faculty. As of 6:30 PM, the article had attracted more than 900 comments, which I'm fairly sure is well above average for the Post website. By 11 PM, it had garnered 1,400 comments.
West Virginia University, a crucial institution in one of the nation’s most impoverished states, is poised to jettison all of its faculty dedicated to teaching Spanish, French, Chinese and other foreign languages. Students interested in learning a new tongue would be pointed to instructional alternatives — such as, possibly, an online app.
The state’s largest public university also is moving toward elimination of a master’s degree program in creative writing and a doctoral program in mathematics, among other proposed cuts, in response to declining enrollment and what university officials call a “structural” budget deficit of $45 million. In all, 32 of the university’s 338 majors on its Morgantown campus would be discontinued and 7 percent of its faculty eliminated under a plan made public last week.
“We are going through an existential crisis in higher education,” E. Gordon Gee, WVU’s president since 2014, told The Washington Post in an interview Wednesday, “and we happen to be on the point of the spear.” Gee said cuts are essential to free up resources for programs in higher demand such as forensics, engineering and neuroscience.
Having passed through Morgantown earlier this summer and been amazed at the way WVU is bravely perched on its hills, I am dismayed by how President E. Gordon Gee has run roughshod over the place the way he apparently did at Brown, Vanderbilt, and Ohio State University.
Selected readings
- "Language and linguistics on trial: Hearing Rachel Jeantel (and other vernacular speakers) in the courtroom and beyond", by John R. Rickford and Sharese King, Language
(Linguistic Society of America), 92.4 (December 2016), 948-988. - "Linguists who count" (5/28/09)
M. Paul Shore said,
August 19, 2023 @ 10:02 am
And for those who might be wondering about this, please note that when I hastily wrote last night (as quoted above) that WVU's Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics should really be called something like "Department of World Languages and Literatures and of Linguistics", since "World" doesn't really apply to "Linguistics", what I meant was not that the word "world" can never be applicable to and modify "linguistics", but rather that the creators of the name of this particular department clearly didn't intend "World" to modify "Linguistics" within the name. Note that WVU Associate Professor of Linguistics Jonah Katz, in his recent open letter to Linguistic Society of America members that's quoted in full in this morning's post by Mark Liberman regarding the NYT article on this same subject, makes it clear that the WVU department's linguistic research interests are fairly West-Virginia-centric: it's not as if they're aiming for a wide spread of studies of Siberian languages and Southeast Asian languages and African languages and Amerindian languages and so on and so forth.
Taylor, Philip said,
August 19, 2023 @ 10:18 am
"Department of World Languages and Literatures and of Linguistics", since "World" doesn't really apply to "Linguistics") — on the hotel menu, we use "&" and "and" to indicate how things distribute, with "&" binding more tightly than "and". So for the Department, it could read "Department of World Languages & Literatures and Linguistics". The proposed "and of" does not read well to my mind.
M. Paul Shore said,
August 19, 2023 @ 10:46 am
Taylor, Philip: Yes, that would work well . . . except that it's a solution that a linguistics or partly-linguistics department shouldn't dare use, because it deploys sememes–specifically, the implications that written "&" means "a tightly binding 'and' " while written "and" means "a less tightly binding 'and' "–that are fundamentally graphical in nature rather than linguistic. Such a solution would therefore tend to undercut the paramount first-class-of-Linguistics-101 message of "language is fundamentally a spoken phenomenon, not a graphical one, and therefore writing is, or should be, merely a reflection of speech and not something of equal or superior importance to it".
Taylor, Philip said,
August 19, 2023 @ 11:23 am
"language is fundamentally a spoken phenomenon, not a graphical one, and therefore writing is, or should be, merely a reflection of speech and not something of equal or superior importance to it" — well, with the greatest humility, I beg to disagree. When I write a paper for publication, I adopt a style of writing best suited to being read silently; if I give an oral paper at a conference, I adopt a style of speaking best suited to oral delivery and aural reception. So I would argue that writing should not be "merely a reflection of speech" — writing (the art of creating the written word) is an art form in itself, not a mere reflection of speech.
John Cowan said,
August 19, 2023 @ 11:42 am
In any case, world does not necessarily mean that something is truly planetary in scope. World music, for example, is 'traditional music from developing countries', including the interaction of traditional styles with more genuinely worldwide ones.
Joshua K. said,
August 19, 2023 @ 4:11 pm
@John Cowan: I would disagree with the idea that "world music" has to come from developing countries. Some years ago, someone trying to establish that "world music" was an internationally recognized genre made a comment to the effect that Yothu Yindi and Jason Donovan are both Australian, but everyone interested in world music agrees that the former is world music and the latter is not. (Yothu Yindi is a band that combines Australian indigenous music with rock, whereas Jason Donovan was a pop singer.)
Jonathan Mayhew said,
August 22, 2023 @ 9:53 am
The linguists at WVU have varied interests, and study many languages from other parts of the world; also have an interest in teaching languages from other parts of the world, and teaching English to those speaking other world languages.