Friday
January 9, 2009
Advertisement
News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education
April 11
Das Ende for German at USC
When the Modern Language Association released its study last year on trends in language enrollments, the figures that jumped out were the huge percentage increases for Arabic (+127 percent over four years) and Chinese (+51 percent). German’s percentage increase was just 3.5 percent. But because the bases for Arabic and Chinese were so small, the MLA found more students studying German (94,264) than Arabic and Chinese combined.
Related stories
- Revising and Defending the Foreign Language Major, Dec. 29
- Shifting Winds in Arabic Teaching, Oct. 1
- A Defense of European Languages, May 15
- ‘But Where Does That Leave French?’, May 5
- Fewer English Jobs, More Language Jobs, Dec. 18, 2007
Given that German enrollments are healthy, should German programs be on the chopping block?
Not surprisingly, language faculty members answer that question No, and generally German departments have avoided elimination in recent years, even without the benefits of the the booms of Arabic or the large total numbers of Spanish. So proponents of German study were outraged this week as some learned that the University of Southern California — a large university that boasts of its international emphasis — is eliminating its German department and not allowing any new majors or minors in the field.
The department is a small one — three tenured faculty members and three full-time adjuncts — with relatively few majors in recent years, although most of its enrollments are from non-majors. But the reason the department is small is that the university last approved a faculty search in German in 1991, and simply let positions go unfilled as professors retired. Now, with two professors nearing retirement, the university has announced — with no advance warning, according to faculty members — that the department is simply being shut down. While German departments have not been shut down in recent years, some have reported having difficulty replacing retiring faculty members, so the pattern at Southern California is one that is viewed with distress.
Howard Gillman, dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said reconsideration of German was natural. “There was a time when because of world events, the study of German and Russian and a few other languages and cultures struck us as really central. We now have a much broader perspective in the world.” In this environment, he said, the “enlarged vision” may require more attention for Hindi or Arabic or Chinese and less for German. “The relative attention on the old things is going to be smaller, while we show new respect” for emerging fields, he said.
To German scholars, those are fighting words.
For a research university to close a German department “is irresponsible,” and it is equally irresponsible to frame the choice as one that may be necessary to support the study of languages outside Europe, said David E. Barclay, executive director of the German Studies Association and a professor of history at Kalamazoo College. Barclay said that he is a strong supporter of efforts to teach Arabic, Chinese and a range of languages, but that language study is important enough that it must not be seen as “a zero sum game,” in which the only way to strengthen Chinese is to cut German.
To imply that American society can manage without European languages because most European elites speak English is “patronizing and dumb,” he said. “Whether we like it or not, and for the next half century more, the currently existing industrial and post-industrial societies are going to dominate the global economy. The European Union is not going away, but is getting stronger — look at the dollar and the euro. Germany is going to continue to be the major player.”
Barclay said he saw USC’s action as part of a broader, disturbing trend in American higher education. “We have an unfortunate propensity in the way we organize international education, to be crisis driven.... So we have a crisis and realize we don’t have anyone who speaks Arabic, so we frantically throw money at programs to teach Arabic, or the Cold War ends and we say ‘let’s cut money for Russian,’ ” he said. Just because the European Union “is not an institution that is scintillating with intrinsic excitement, it’s still darn important.”
Gerhard Clausing, chair of German at USC, said he was told of the decision on March 27, and that university officials told him the decision was final and that they would not consider alternatives. He said he spent about a week trying to figure out if there was anything that could be done, and that largely failing to get information, he felt he had to share the news with students and faculty members.
Clausing said he regularly proposed additional hiring — frequently in conjunction with other departments, such as comparative literature — but was turned down by the administration every time. So while he said it was true that enrollments could be higher (about 125-140 students a semester are in German now), he said it was hard to attract more students when permanent positions disappeared.
The administration “told me that the department wasn’t sustainable, but they caused that to happen,” he said.
One department chair outside the language fields at USC, who asked not to be identified, said that many humanities faculty members — even those with no direct connections to the department — are troubled by the idea that a large university would not maintain a department. “I think that a number of us feel that German is integral to a research university,” said the chair.
An editorial in the Daily Trojan, the student newspaper, noted that the top universities USC compares itself to have German departments. “The decision to axe the department is outrageous. Cutting a foreign language program undermines the university’s attempt to portray itself as a global leader; world-class institutions offer world languages,” said the editorial.
Gillman, the dean, said that it was important not to view “a change in organizational structure” as reflecting a lack of commitment to German. He noted that the university has East Asian languages in a single department and French and Italian in a single department. And he added that basic German instruction would continue to be offered in some department. (He acknowledged, however, that while it is possible to major in Chinese, it won’t be possible to major in German.)
The question, Gillman said, wasn’t about German, but about the university stopping to consider its goals for languages. “We want to think about investments not just about German language, but Arabic language and culture and Chinese language and culture and Hindi language and culture, and we are thinking about where those investments should be,” he said. And at this point, he added that the department is so small that he did not think he could “take care of students” who want to major in German.
Helene Zimmer-Loew, executive director of the American Association of Teachers of German, said she just heard a rumor about the closing Thursday and was planning to urge members to protest to USC. “This is very short-sighted,” she said. And she rejected the idea that a large university must pick either European or Asian languages. “One would think there would be room for both.”
At USC, and elsewhere in German programs, many students enroll for study of culture or philosophy or psychology, not just language — and departments report that such courses have built ties across disciplinary lines. Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association, e-mailed her thoughts from Charleston, S.C., where she is at the annual meeting of the College Language Association.
“Our research suggests that there’s a growing demand for languages and a continuing demand from students who want to study German. I hope that USC will reconsider; as a major university it should be playing a leadership role in supporting language study, which is an increasingly important field of study in a global economy,” Feal said. At the meeting, she said that she had just heard of “fascinating work going on in Afro-German literature and culture,” reflecting a broadening of German studies. “Many universities are discovering ways to expand the German curriculum and attract majors through such courses as Holocaust studies, German film, and so forth. It would be great if USC could offer their students advanced courses and entice them to major in a subject that is still vital and important.”
Want it on paper? Print this page.
Know someone who’d be interested? Forward this story.
Want to stay informed? Sign up for free daily news e-mail.
Advertisement
Comments
USC should be ashamed of itself and its attitude toward not only German but languages in general. Learning a second (third, fourth) language should not be seen as a trend or the need for bilinguals to sell products or wage war. It is a long-term, life-time commitment to acquiring linguistic and cultural knowledge.
To see only non-European languages as “useful” now is to be short-sighted and to show no respect for what so many mean — are we now to ditch Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and so many other European languages just because they will not supposedly help us gain profits?
What a pity. This shows an attitude toward cultures and diversity, and a disrespect for other countries in general — makes them just “useful” to the US rather than valuable in their own right and for their contributions to the world. If I were a student at USC, I’d transfer.
Kathleen March, Professor of Spanish at University of Maine, at 7:15 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Excessive Hand-wringing
I certainly appreciate the passion for academia shown here, but isn’t a little nuts to make such a big deal out of this? Every institution is not a leader in every field. If USC’s German program is not doing well, why should they present it to students as an option? Why shouldn’t they shift resources to something they’re better at or that works better with their mix of resources, strengths, location etc. There are plenty of places to go study German. Better places, in fact. I for one, think it is good that in this age of expensive tuitions and pressure on universities to spend wisely that the university is making choices about what niches it can fill and where it can best serve students.
R.M., at 9:20 am EDT on April 11, 2008
This is a fine example of A College of Arts and Sciences leadership being out of touch with the needs of the School of Business (and other scholls for that matter). The facts in the article regarding demand for languages don’t align with the dean’s comments about a broader world view. Want a world view — go to Europe and see how many languages their ordinary citizens can speak easily (usually 3 to 4) — likely as not, German is one of them.
Learning the German language has been in continual demand for decades and is, other than English, the language of commerce throught the EU and neighboring regions. Perhaps that is why the current number of students is so high.
I am pleased to see other languages that have received minimal attention are becoming the subject of an increased interest in learning foerign languages (something too many US college students in business majors avoid whenever possible). Naturally there would be growth in Chinese and Arabic — significant percentage increases from a low baseline number of language students certainly can give false impressions that result in conclusions that other existing languages are not important — as is in this instance.
I’m sure other universities will welcome those misguided USC students who have a more realistic view of global language demand.
Frank Novakowski, Assoc Dean — School of Business, at 9:40 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Reality
It may certainly be that this decision by USC is short-sighted (and as a Deutsch-spracher I have my own personal opinion). But please let the irony not be lost that the same people who are protesting the elimination of an under-enrolled program are often the same who constantly vilify the ever-increasing price of tuition and/or the low pay for faculty and/or the over-importance of fundraising. In this real world in which we live, is strategically reassessing the curriculum never an option? Is German (which is lauded as being ‘core’ to the function and brand of a research university) really in the top 50 most important academic programs at USC?
Herr Doctor, at 9:40 am EDT on April 11, 2008
I’m in the awkward position of (conditionally) agreeing with this decision while despising the methods behind it.
1) USC sounds like it’s going to continue language instruction in German, but not offer it as a major or a minor. So I’m not sure this is really about students becoming fluent or being EU-literate as much as it’s about dedicating research positions (vs. teaching positions) to languages or cultures or regions.
2) We’re talking about 125-140 students a semester for three full time faculty members and three full time adjuncts. Even given that there haven’t been recent tenure-track hires, this is tragic enrollment anywhere (and especially a machine like USC).
I’m not sure how you justify ten or twelve courses a semester at that level of student interest (especially when most of those students are non-majors or non-minors), and I’m not sure how you justify a major or a minor at USC when you have trouble justifying three tenure-track positions.
That said, the process of moving tenure lines from German to Arabic should have been more transparent. When these announcements are surprising it’s a clear administrative failure. I’m not sure that point can be overstated.
At the same time, the administration’s reluctance to add tenure lines to German should have made their intentions pretty clear — it’s been going on for almost twenty years.
Z.N., at 10:00 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Importance of German
That the University of Southern California has dropped its German Department, after years of not allowing it to hire new faculty, shows not only the poor work of its administrators but also their ignorance. Germany was the intellectual leader from the time of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) until Adolf Hitler destroyed it, in all intellectual endeavors, science, mathematics, history, literature, music, etc. , and there is much important work being done there now. The university system as it now exists is the German one. Not being able to teach German is to cut students off from the great intellectual developments of the 18th, 19th, and earlier 20th century: from Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Goethe, Helmholtz, Gauss, to Freud and Einstein, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and their followers, and so on. Translations into English are not sufficient for any serious work in studying the ideas of these men. Germany is a major country, one of the largest in Europe. Offering courses in Arabic and Chinese may be useful for current political reasons, but the intellectual contributions in Arabic and Chinese are not of the significance of those in German.
Judy Wubnig, University of Waterloo, at 10:25 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Z.N., I think your post makes excellent points!
R,M., at 10:25 am EDT on April 11, 2008
OPEC and the German language
As a former AFS exchange student to Austria, I can provide many other reasons a German department matters. Not only has OPEC been housed in Vienna, Austria — a German-speaking country — for over forty years, but much major research in many scientific and technological fields is done at German-speaking universities. Being able to read the research in its original language is crucial. Having translators who can provide accurate translations is also crucial. And as a student who entered college only a month after returning from Austria, I struggled to find German coursework that was challenging enough for me. I didn’t need conversational German, but I was able to study German business practices, discover Nietzsche in the original German, and study Faust — all because of the University of Notre Dame’s very small German department. A university education is not just another commodity — it makes us better people.
Beth, Assessment Coordinator at a Midwestern Community College, at 10:40 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Unless I missed the reference, neither in the article on USC’s dismantling of its German Department nor in reader reactions to this article, is there any mention of German literature. Let’s assume that “culture” or “civilization,” which are mentioned, are meant to include literature, but the absence of any specific discussion of the abandonment of German literature at USC is shocking, but perhaps not surprising.
Not surprising certainly coming, as it does, fast on the heels of a related development: the Educational Testing Service has just announced that after next year, it will drop its French Literature Advanced Placement program. Strike 2 against the literatures and intellectual history of continental European nations and of their former overseas colonies.
The thrust of your report seems to suggest that the concern of those lamenting the loss of the German Department at USC is the loss of German language skills as tools for better job placement or job advancement, or for the advancement of US economic or political goals.
Tuition costs that have gone into the stratosphere have prompted colleges and universities to justify their fees as necessary but, at the same time, as fair trade-offs for graduates’ higher future earning power. From the other side of their institutional mouths, these same colleges and universities laud the purity of the liberal arts and sciences tradition as knowledge for knowledge sake which will transform students into graduates capable of leading fuller, richer, and better lives, having been “set free” by these liberating liberal arts.
Perhaps this forked-tongue stance is coming to an end, as both UCS and the College Board admit that they choose the national languages they foster, not because of the rich literary and intellectual traditions of nations, but rather because of their geo-political (Arabic) threat or economic (Chinese) clout.
Ed Gallagher, Professor of French Studies at Wheaton College, Massachusetts, at 11:25 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Outrageous
The USC paper had it right. Cutting the German department at USC definitely undermines the university’s ability to compete globally, and does a disservice to its students. My four years of high school German prepared me for the language requirement at my college of choice, where I made many friends and was able to converse freely in a language rich with tradition and culture. I hope someday to go to Germany and use my skills in the language. This is a sad day for USC.
Dave O’Brien, at 11:25 am EDT on April 11, 2008
Cutting a German Department means that the university is simply a business enterprise and in no way a temple of knowledge production with the freedom to teach, study and research. These freedoms are the basis of the modern university ideal that, incidentally, was developed in 19th century Germany. If university education in the US reduces its mission to supply-and-demand mechanisms, universities give up some of their autonomy. How can we understand the history of university’s contributions to society in the past and present when we ignore international perspectives? Cutting a German Department would also mean to cut out everything German-language speakers have contributed directly or indirectly to US society and culture.
AB, at 12:00 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
Scholars of not just “language”
Scholars who teach a foreign language may have to redefine themselves to the world as specialists of a culture who, particularly in view of their linguistic knowledge, can offer important courses in English: courses that count towards media studies, European studies, women’s studies, comparative literature. They must seek recognition from administration and others as intellectuals with knowledge and training that extends well beyond “language” skills. Think of Classics: while professors of Classics may teach Latin and Greek, no one calls them mere “foreign language” teachers. They are considered scholars and intellectuals; they are not defined merely in terms of how well they know or teach a foreign language.
Kathleen Hart, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Vassar College, at 12:00 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
Why we study German
I agree with Judy. Studying German is not to talk to anybody or make deals, but to read some of the great literature of the world. That is also true for some people who study Arabic and Chinese too, and French, Spanish, Japanese, etc. Learning a language is to read the words of the great writers and open up new spaces in your mind. Every university faces tough choices, but decisions should not be made on the basis of immediate utility. We should aim to educate human beings, not cogs in the international capitalist machine.
Sarah Schneewind, at 12:00 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
No More Bottom Lines For Business Students At USC?
I am almost (maybe not quite) neutral on this issue. I am, however, intrigued by the comment of homo economicus, R.M., who wrote ...
“Every institution is not a leader in every field. If USC’s German program is not doing well, why should they present it to students as an option? Why shouldn’t they shift resources to something they’re better at or that works better with their mix of resources, strengths, location etc.”
That remark inspired my wondering what a university is all about these days. Had the InsideHigherEd headline been “No More Bottom Lines for Business Students at USC,” I would probably have congratulated them for eliminating a training environment which (in my opinion) (1) has very little intellectual content, (2) offers programs easily found elsewhere, (3) “offers majors “best” obtained at one of those schools that Babson and Bentley used to be, and (4) is not really integral to helping students become educated citizens.
Recently, Indiana State University down-graded its physics and philosophy departments and eliminated majors in those disciplines.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/07/programs
If ISU were a “real” university, I would find that remarkably disturbing; but it is more or less an upper-level vocational school. At such an institution I can understand R.M.’s perspective.
From a “what constitutes a university?” perspective, I think eliminating a German department falls somewhere between eliminating a business school (no big deal) and eliminating a philosophy or physics major (very big deal). Perhaps USC is informing the public that it’s new focus will emphasize vocational training, not educating young men and women.
Frizbane Manley, at 12:15 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
Choosing languages
Ed Gallagher writes:Perhaps this forked-tongue stance is coming to an end, as both UCS and the College Board admit that they choose the national languages they foster, not because of the rich literary and intellectual traditions of nations, but rather because of their geo-political (Arabic) threat or economic (Chinese) clout.
So are you suggesting that Arabic and Chinese people have no literary or intellectual tradition?
It’s an economic decision on the part of USC. It may well also be the result of years of under investing in the department by USC and their failure to recruit students and faculty. Or perhaps the dean just doesn’t like Germans.
It does weaken the school.
Faculty Person, at 12:15 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
USC is world-class?
If USC wants to be a world-class research institution, then it needs to look at what other world-class institutions facing similar problems have done. For Stanford’s solution in response to a similar crisis (in the 1990s), see:https://www.stanford.edu/dept/lc/language/
How can an institution claim to be training real scholars in the humanities without having scholars (i.e., tenured and tenure track professors) on campus who read, teach, and publish on the original German texts (and their cultural and historical importance)? If their lack of hiring continues and more German professors retire, SC will be left with a skeleton crew of overworked and underpaid lecturers teaching introductory and intermediate language courses. As a member of the hiring committee in our Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures department (at a west coast university), I would vote against hiring anyone (in any related field, including Comp Lit and Classics) produced by such a slipshod institution as SC. When the word gets out, SC’s reputation in any humanistic field will be tarnished. Perhaps SC’s administration should consider this factor—the marketability of their future PhDs—before making such a draconian decision.
Honora Chapman, at 12:20 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
ONE-SIDED COMMENTARY
1. German studies will continue at USC. German literature has been taught in translation there for years (look up their schedule of classes online). It will continue to be taught through the Comparative Literature department. Other areas of German studies will continue to be housed in other departments: economics, history, political science, critical studies, linguistics, philosophy. German language will continue to be offered through advanced level, plus German for research for graduate students in fields for which knowledge of German is beneficial.
2. If you consult the same schedule of classes for this semester, enrollments are shown. There are 99 students in all levels of German this semester. Take away those in reading for graduate students, first and second year courses (that satisfy USC’s foreign language requirement), then there are just thirteen students in all three of their upper division courses COMBINED. This includes an independent study class. The numbers offered in the article are inflated by some 50%. Shamey, shamey. Could you justify paying a tenured professor to teach one of her two course load for 2-3 students? It appears that one professor is teaching two classes in upper division German in which there is a combined enrollment of seven. A full course load at USC is two per semester. Wow.
3. Many private research universities offer low-enrolled languages through programs not in language and literature departments. Some of them become full fledged departments, but others do not. I suspect that German language will end up being offered through one of these.
4. German at USC has not had new graduate students admitted to their PhD program in more than ten years. Yet there are still three enrolled in a dissertation course. Who has hired a USC German PhD (except USC!) in the past twenty years? It is clear that USC German was not great. Is it not the obligation of an administration to invest in programs that are either already great or hold the potential to become great? German at USC is neither and it has never been such.
RODEO, at 1:15 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
USC and the Pacific rim
The hysterical posts following this article betray the deep insecurity of the traditional guardians of ‘western’ culture. To suggest that USC is giving up credibility as a research university as a result of dropping the German program is laughable.
To be sure, the contributions of German culture are numerous and important. However the historic privilege that German (or any other European language and culture) has traditionally enjoyed in the academy must be examined critically.
The strategic plan of USC focuses explicitly on the increasing importance of the Pacific rim. Realigning the studies of language and culture to support that plan does not mean that USC is turning its back on Europe. Rather, USC recognizes that its priorities differ from traditional US colleges by virtue of its geographic location and the demographics of its students.
USC alum, at 3:25 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
Tongue-tied Americans? Brain-tied?
Closing the German Department is a stunning display of ignorance and arrogance. Doesn’t the USC administration realize that Germany leads the world in ecology and environmental engineering? Do we in the US have NOTHING to learn from, for example, German technology, urban planning, transportation, or national health care?
A majority of people in this country want to see urgent issues like these addressed. But are we going to stubbornly do it our way, refusing to stand on the shoulders of an available giant? Can the US afford the delay and expense that would involve? And doesn’t higher ed have some responsibility to respond to national crises?
It can be different. For years, I had the pleasure of being a member of a German program that systematically cultivated interdisciplinary collaborations with other programs on the Storrs campus. Our students took language and culture courses as they pursued degrees in engineering, business, sciences, music and other fields. They were required to study or do an internship abroad. They returned fluent, professionally prepared, and with a stronger (or in some cases, new-found) interest in German literature, art, history, philosophy, and social issues.
We faculty in German believed — and our experience confirmed — that the liberal arts goals and professional goals of a university do not have to be in conflict; they CAN work synergistically. In fact, this should be the ideal of a higher education for the 21st century.
But achieving the ideal is possible only if the chance to study language and culture is available in the first place — you don’t remove options, and in particular you don’t eliminate (or in this case, reduce to the point of unsustainability) a language with as much potential as German. Administration and faculty have to have the creativity, will and knowledge to make new courses of study work. Our students already get it; they’re just waiting for the chance.
Barbara Wright, ret. German professor at UConn, at 3:25 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
Closing down of German Language Department at USC
I was shocked to read of the decision to close down the German Language Department at USC. Among areas that will suffer the corollary consequences are the Visual and Performing Arts in which students continue to study German language and culture, and the areas of study that include the interaction of German culture with its new minority cultures (African, Muslim, etc.) I don’t think we as a nation can afford to lose sight the continuing/and or increasing importance of these studies.
Henrietta McKee Carter, Chair, Visual and Performing Arts at Golden West College, at 3:25 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
some slarification
As an English professor at U.S.C, I am not happy about the closing of the German Department, but many commenters here are misled. I have been told by an administrator that USC will continue to teach the German language; so you see it is not a matter of sacrificing German for Arabic or Chinese (although as a Pacific rim university with many Asian students we do have a robust East Asian program). Indeed, the German Dept. here has never been strong and it has never attracted many students; it now has eleven majors I believe. Universities now have so many new fields that they did not have even fifty years ago, that it is no longer appropriate to judge them by the strengths they had when I went to Harvard fifty years ago. Harvard obviously did not have programs, for example, in Cinema and Music Performance in which USC excells.I studied Latin, French, German, and Anglo Saxon in college and graduate school, so I hardly condescend to language studies. But no single university model fits all, nor should it.
David Eggenschwiler, Professor emeritus at Univ, Of southern California, at 6:30 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
German and the performing arts
Ms. Carter, assuming that Golden West is in California, I assume too that you know something of USC’s strenghts in cinema, music, drama, and studio art. It has arguably the strongest set of Visual and Performing Arts programs in the western U.S. I assure you that it has achieved them without relying on its German Department.
David Eggenschwiler, USC, at 6:35 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
If USC and its alumni want to redefine what a university is for the 21st century, this is their choice to make—after all, USC is a private school. The growing influence of China has certainly encouraged the growth of Pacific Rim programs, which is great, especially on the west coast. But if the university continues to chip away at its departments such as German through downsizing and elimination of degree programs, it will be unable to prepare its students for high-level and meaningful work in many fields, as discussed in comments above. USC should be careful of its reputation in the humanities, since its poor treatment of one department reflects poorly on the whole humanistic enterprise, regardless of subject matter.
Private schools have a particular obligation to deliver a proper education for the enormous tuition they charge. I just hope that the students who choose to go there know what they are getting for all that money. As the parent of a child who can’t wait to take German in college because his high school doesn’t offer it, I would be loathe to have him apply to such a place unless there is the possibility of earning a special or self-designed major in German Studies (which I suspect there will be).
Honora Chapman, at 6:35 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
In response to ZN’s comment that “the process of moving tenure lines from German to Arabic should have been more transparent,” there’s very little indication that there’s any intention of moving tenure lines from German to Arabic. While USC does currently offer language instruction in Arabic and Hindi, it does so through lecturers in the Linguistics department. While Dean Gillman suggests that there may be a conversation about allocating more resources to these languages, no one has actually said that this means tenure lines...and it’s not clear where those tenure-line faculty would be housed, or how many would have to be hired to institute a major/minor program comparable to the one that’s being eliminated (evidently, three faculty does not a department make at USC).
MB, at 7:00 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
About 15 years ago I created a combined major at the Univ of Kentucky: Foreign Language and International Economics. It took a bit of time to convince all the players that this would be a win-win situation. The total number of required credits hours would remain at the usual 120. The program is thriving and has attracted some of the best students enrolled at the University- The languages offered: German, (I am a native speaker; my Ph.D. is in Economics from USC, eons ago), Spanish, Russian, French, and Chinese. Senior seminars are required and taught in each of the native tongues with the subject matter being International Economics. I taught the German seminar just prior to retiring, a French economics professor was recruited to spend a semester in Lexington, dito for a professor from Mexico and Japan, etc.Perhaps this model would be some use to you at USC. If you need to contact me: 706 353 9226, this is Athens, GA where the Univ. of Ga is located
Curt E Harvey, Prof.Emer. of Economics at Univ.Of Kentucky; Amer.Grad.School of Intern.Management, at 11:45 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
What about requirements?
Someone might have touched on this but...
Art history, philosophy, and I believe opera grad schools often require German as a prerequisite for admission.
In the long run, won’t this impact more students than just German majors?
Bix, at 11:45 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
no surprise
Another of the glories of Late Capitalism. I find it more and more difficult to see any significant different between present-day mega-universities and ExxonMobil. In fact, ExxonMobil at least is honest about the importance of the bottom-line. I’d guess that to the extent that a liberal arts education survives at all today, it survives only because boards and administrators are ashamed to reveal just how profit-oriented they are by eliminating the programs.
Douglas MIlburn, at 11:45 pm EDT on April 11, 2008
USC German Resources
In addition to the many general reasons to sustain a German program at USC, the unique German-language holding of the USC library should be mentioned. USC is home to the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library — an invaluable, extensive collection of material related to German refugees from Nazism. It is a great disappointment that USC would close its German program, given these special holdings which are significant for the history of L.A. as well as for German culture in general.
Jonathan Skolnik, at 6:35 am EDT on April 12, 2008
With all due respect for Dave Eggenschwiler, one should point out that other prestigious Pacific Rim universities—Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara come to mind—have maintained vital German studies programs without neglecting the languages and cultures of the new global economy. Playing the zero-sum game among non-English language/literature/culture departments is totally pernicious. It’s not a matter of trying to do everything, but of sustaining an idea of the university as more than just a locus of reaction to the latest trends, which is what the mass media are for. Absent an idea of what sets it apart from other institutions of “knowledge” reproduction and of technical, vocational, or even artistic training, a university loses its soul. Its administrators may well choose to cover their own failures by blaming falling enrollments, rather than finding means to bolster them as so many other universities have done, but the fact is USC has just given up—or sold out—part of its soul.
RP, at 6:35 am EDT on April 12, 2008
Das Ende for German at USC
This is simply outrageous!!!
There is room for all languages to be taught in this country. Several years ago, Don Rumfield made the comment about a new Europe referring to Eastern Europe and not the established countries of the EU now having the power.This was wrong!!!
Germany is a virtual player in the EU and with Globalization will continue to have a place on the world stage. Chinese and Arabic need to be increased but not at the expense of German.
John Williams, German Instructor, Arlington Va, at 3:55 pm EDT on April 12, 2008
I am encouraged by all your supportive and constructive contributions. To correct a misperception about our teaching loads: We also teach literature in the General Education program and occasionally in Comparative Literature, so student enrollments served by our small group per semester are even higher than cited in the article above, some 160 in Spring 2008. It is easy for those from departments of 30 or more to talk about “strength,” but building strength also requires investments. A very small group of faculty representing a field is asked to perform extensive multitasking. If you would like to see an interesting example, please join us at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles on May 22 for “Fairies, Ghosts and Witches in German and Austrian Literature and Music.” This event is a cultural activity of our Max Kade Institute of Austrian-German-Swiss Studies (Director: Professor Cornelius Schnauber), cosponsored by the USC German Department and the Goethe-Institut.
Gerhard Clausing, Professor and Chair at USC, at 3:55 pm EDT on April 12, 2008
Language vs Culture
I would like to point out something that is missing from the discussion. Language programs in America are horrible, period. I studied Spanish at USC, arguably a strong language, and learned essentially nothing. Then I spent a semester in Madrid and learned a whole lot! To me it is almost beyond logic to think that studying language at university will give one any decent understanding of the subject. Without complete immersion, the undertaking is just not feasible. If someone applied for a job at my company and said that their language skills were entirely acquired in the classroom there is zero chance I would believe they have language skills.
I do agree, however, that it is vital to have tenured professors teaching the culture, literature, history etc of Germany and most other countries. If we lose track of this, we are doomed. Especially at USC, a university that President Sample claims to be the best school west of Yale, it is appalling to see the lack of investment in crucial topics.
Trojan alum, at 4:00 pm EDT on April 12, 2008
USC’s German Dept.: The first shoe to drop
Like many subjects in the Humanities, German Studies is in a free fall—and has been for years. The outrage many express at what has occurred at USC is either disingenuous or evidence of the writers being seriously out of touch with what’s actually going on at universities in this country. From my own experience in German depts. at three different universities over the last 7 years, I have noticed the following trends: bottom-line obsessed administrators, complacent and resigned tenured faculty, exploited and demoralized adjuncts, along with dwindling enrollments. Further, recent German PhDs now enter a job market where positions at top schools have over two hundred uniformly qualified applicants, so that getting a position boils down to ancillary issues like one’s savvy in networking, their race or gender, or less often, pure luck.
If you want to gain some insight into what’s really going on in German Studies (which for some would mean taking your head out of the sand), the recent debacle at Wellesley College seems instructive. After conducting a lengthy tenure track job search with two hundred applicants, the Wellesley German Dept. ultimately hired no one. Shortly after announcing via email to applicants the futility of their search (a very tacky and unprofessional move on their part), they put up another job notice, this time for an adjunct position in German at “%80 time.” (i.e., 4/5th compensation for a normal 2/2 teaching load.)
Did the tenure track position at Wellesley go unfilled for petty political reasons? Was it a budgetary issue, or merely a change of heart? Does it really matter? The free fall of German Studies in this country continues and what happened at USC is likely just the first of many shoes to drop.
chris, Assistant Professor of German at University in the Midwest, at 4:00 pm EDT on April 12, 2008
German
“Trojan alum” states that University language departments are “horrible” and in so doing, commits a common but egregious error in logic, for he bases it on his failed attempts to learn Spanish at USC. How then does he explain the great numbers of my students who speak entirely serviceable German without having set foot in a German-speaking country? How does he explain that one of our graduate students who is currently completing the requirements for his MA in German can, without ever having had the opportunity to enjoy a German immersion situation can still read Goethe, Thomas Mann, or Kafka in the original and discuss it intelligently in German? Be honest with yourself, “Alum": how often did you miss class? How many hours per week did you devote to grammar and vocabulary study outside of the classroom? You offer your successful language acquisition in Madrid as support of your assertion that it is the only way to learn a language, but consider this: in a semester of college language here at home, the student is exposed to, at best, about 60 hours of classtime. Assuming a student in Spain sleeps 8 hours per night, that gives him 16 hours of immersion per day, or 112 hours per week, (already nearly twice the hours of exposure that the student back home has had in a whole semester) and a whopping 1680 hours in a semester. Of course you learned more in a semester in Madrid! But do you honestly think that a person with no prior knowledge of Spanish who spends, say, 4 days in Spain(64 hours of immersion) will know more Spanish than a dedicated student at an American University will learn in a semester (60 class hours)? Face it: American University language departments are not “horrible.” Indeed, I think we’re amazing.
Mark Person, Lecturer at University of Wyoming, at 9:00 am EDT on April 13, 2008
Somebody said it before — we are always reacting to political/economic crises instead of preparing for all eventualities. By dropping “traditional” languages we are sure to create another crisis in the future. We should offer more languages — they are all needed, desperately — not less.
MCN, at 6:25 pm EDT on April 13, 2008
Closing German Dept at USC
One wonders whether the good dean has actually thought through his decision in the context of the entire university and its ostensible academic and scholarly mission. The assumption that the teaching of German and things German, i.e. German Studies,only affects and concerns German majors is shortsighted and absurd. USC presumably has a Department of History, with a European component and a graduate level and perhaps even one for Government of Political Science with a similar field orientation in Europe. How, pray tell, are those undergraduates and graduate students going to acquire the requisite language skills and ancillary information to pursue their fields in any manner that is minimally acceptable in academic circles? Or will those departments also be eliminated as no longer fashionable? Because it is obviously fashion not serious or rigorous academic and curricular thinking which drives decisions like the one so rashly contemplated or taken at USC.To use a stock market analogy: this is the behavior not of a serious investor who acts with due diligence but of a speculative gambler or day trader who is driven by the everyday whims of the marketplace. I would not want to think of anyone responsible for an academic institution in those terms.
Herbert A.Arnold, Prof.emeritus at Wesleyan University, at 12:15 am EDT on April 14, 2008
READ FOR CONTENT, YO
How? German studies is not going away. Just the shell of an administrative unit called the “German Department” is going away. German language, culture, history, literature, and so on will continue at USC. Please read for content. Thanks.
RODEO, at 10:55 am EDT on April 14, 2008
I am a USC Alum (’04) who spent 3 years in Berlin, Germany after graduating. No, I was neither a major or minor in German, but one of the most rewarding classes I had at USC was a class on German Phonetics and Pronunciation. My experience in Germany has made my life richer and would not have been possible without the German department.
USC is a football school and will always remain one. That is a suspicion that has haunted me since graduation. Unfortunately, this news seems to support that hypothesis.
James, Das ist schlecht, at 3:50 pm EDT on April 14, 2008
Neo-liberal internationaliszation?
Shutting down the German Department at USC may be the result of the neo-liberal internationalization of universities. Here is an interesting article on the difference between economic and cultural internationalisation. The author argues: “In the Neo-liberal University, ‘international’ is meaningless in the sense that it is used as an indicator of excellence and the only criterion of excellence in the contemporary university is performativity in a global market.” She then outlines alternatives. Her critique of the “learning (to learn)” paradigm is illuminating. Drawing on Hannah Arendt, she argues that the learning paradigm is “an impoverished view of education” that denies the relationship between student and teacher and among students. (Suzy Harris (2008), “Internationalising the University,” _Educational Philosophy and Theory_ 40 (2) , 346-357 doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00336.x http://www.blackwell-synergy.com....ll/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00336.x)
While it is important to protest such actions, such protests will do little in the face of neo-liberalization. Individual faculty and their associations (e.g. GSA and CAUTG) must create new strategies, not only to save German Studies from further decline, but also to act against administrators’, politicians’ and the private economy’s dismantling of the university as a place where people can develop their curiosity and intellectual facilities.
Alexander Freund, Chair in German-Canadian Studies at University of Winnipeg, at 10:30 pm EDT on April 21, 2008
Auf Nimmerwiedersehen for German @ USC
What a ridiculous decision! USC is an stone throw away from the movie industry. Any serious film student interested in film history is being deprived of learning and understanding not only a language, but a world view, a vision. Anyone who studies medicine, or philosophy still benefits from german, as do history majors. USC; Unversity of Stupid Children.
Michael Demian Winans, at 5:30 pm EDT on August 8, 2008
Advertisement
Jobs Related to Das Ende for German at USC
or search for jobs directly.
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Language Lecturer in Modern Hebrew
University of Pennsylvania
The nation’s first university, Penn is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. Situated on a ... see job
Spanish — Foreign Languages and Literatures — Assistant Professor
Western Illinois University
Recognized as one of the nation’s “Best Value” institutions and one of the “Best in the Midwest Colleges” by the ... see job
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
The School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a leading research university, invites ... see job
GED Instructor — Bilingual/Spanish
Butte Glenn Community College District
BUTTE GLENN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT Associate Faculty GED Instructor — Bilingual/Spanish Part-Time $42.91 — $48.76/hour ... see job
Lecturer — French
University of California, Irvine
School of Humanities Department of French and Italian French Position: Lecturer Lecturer Position for Winter and Spring 2009 ... see job
Spanish Lecturer
James Madison University
Join one of the finest regional universities in the nation. James Madison University, home to 18,000 + students, welcomes you ... see job
Program Coordinator, Interpreter/Captionist — American Sign Language
Lone Star College System
Located just north of Houston, Texas, our five campuses serve 1,400 square miles. Our student enrollment is nearly 50,000 in ... see job
Lecturer — Italian
University of California, Irvine
School of Humanities Department of French and Italian Italian Position: Lecturer Lecturer Position for Winter and Spring 2009 ... see job
Instructor of Japanese
Southern Oregon University
Faculty and staff make an educated choice to work at Southern Oregon University. They contribute to the education of students ... see job
English as a Second Language Instructor
MiraCosta College
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (NONCREDIT) INSTRUCTOR Closing Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 The noncredit English as a Second ... see job
Home
| Sign up | Log in
| About us
| Work for Us
| Press Releases
| Rights and permissions
| Contact us
| Advertise
| Partners
| RSS 
| Podcasts
| Links
| Privacy
| My Account
© Copyright 2009 Inside Higher Ed
How to measure the loss of a German Department?
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT has no way of measuring the intellectual loss for a university that eliminates a department and program of German Studies. It should. the University of Southern California, branding itself over the past ten years as a major research university, just lost part of its brand. If those lists have any meaning at all,they should reflect what it means to be called a “leading research university” or “leading liberal arts college"; and you don’t belong there without a program in German. Go back to the old “modern language” department model, if you wish, or combine German with other programs like Russian. That’s ok. But, to announce the closing of a department like German and making no arrangements for the continuation of a program loses any pretense for a serious intellectual engagement in European civilization, and USC just announced that it cannot be taken seriously.
Sol Gittleman, University Professor at Tufts University, at 7:00 am EDT on April 11, 2008