Tom Stoppard Defends East European Languages

The playwright Tom Stoppard has joined a campaign in Scotland against what humanities professors say is the gradual elimination of university programs in Russian, Czech and Polish, The Scotsman reported. Stoppard, who is Czech, said he does not speak the language and that his reaction is based not on his personal ties, but his view of the intellectual contributions of a broad language program. A proposal by Glasgow University to eliminate its Slavonic studies department has set off the latest efforts on behalf of language and culture programs.