When leaders at West Virginia University proposed getting rid of the department of world languages, literatures, and linguistics, they said it was one of several hard, mission-driven choices to move away from programs the university can no longer afford to offer.
All summer, administrators had analyzed data for academic programs on the Morgantown campus. Student interest in foreign languages, they concluded, is “very low and declining,” which aligns with a national trend. The provost’s office recommended last week that the department be dissolved. Faculty positions — currently at 23 — would drop to zero.
Because some students will still want foreign-language instruction, WVU is exploring “alternative methods of delivery,” such as a virtual partnership with a fellow Big 12 university or via an online language app. A “modern land-grant university” must provide “modern ways of delivering content,” said E. Gordon Gee, the university’s president, in an announcement about the cuts.
Language professors at West Virginia and around the country recoiled. “I’ve been doing Spanish on Duolingo for a little over a hundred days. I can’t say diddly squat,” said Lisa M. Di Bartolomeo, a teaching professor of Russian studies at West Virginia. An app is a fine supplement to classroom instruction, she said, but it cannot be the sole means of a language education.
That a flagship, land-grant, R1 university wants to eliminate its world-languages department — and potentially swap in-person instruction with an app — is shocking, and seemingly unprecedented, several faculty members told The Chronicle. Paula M. Krebs, executive director of the Modern Language Association, wrote to Gee that “no other state flagship university has forsaken language education for its students.”
Howie Berman, executive director of ACTFL, formerly the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, said he worries that other colleges, especially those facing financial problems, might follow West Virginia’s lead. Di Bartolomeo, too, said she’s afraid WVU “may be the canary in the coal mine.” Though she hopes the outpouring of support for the department will prompt university leaders to change their minds, she said, that’s “kind of like hoping that if everybody claps hard enough, Tinkerbell will come back to life.”
Programs That Are Most ‘Relevant’
This past spring, university leaders announced they were contending with a $45-million budget deficit that could grow to $75 million in coming years, if left unaddressed. Though Gee had once pledged WVU would reach historic growth, the university was now predicting it could lose thousands of students over the next decade. The bet on growth that never came, as well as the pandemic and other external factors, contributed to the university’s difficult financial position, The Chronicle previously reported.
WVU began planning to shrink, with the help of the rpk Group, a consulting company. Leaders emphasized that the university’s offerings must be the most “relevant” to students, in order to raise enrollment. Maryanne Reed, the provost, warned at a May meeting of the Faculty Senate that programs of “high academic caliber” might be on the chopping block.
In July the university flagged more than 100 programs, including the world-languages department’s five undergraduate majors and two master’s degrees, for review. The unit’s undergraduate programs in Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish are each “very small,” and its ratio of majors to full-time faculty members is well below the median, according to the provost office’s analysis.
No other state flagship university has forsaken language education for its students.
The department argued for its value on multiple fronts. Professors were awarded more than a million dollars in external grants this past academic year, the unit wrote in a self-study, and the department directly contributes to WVU’s mission by educating students on global cultures. Those students also develop important communication skills that make them more employable, the document says. The department submitted testimonials from alumni who since graduating had embarked on a wide array of careers, from a French teacher in Jefferson County, W.Va., to a Foreign Service officer who has been stationed in China, Germany, Indonesia, and Poland.
The unit also argued that the university’s analysis was flawed. For one, WVU’s data did not consider double majors, which are imperative to understanding the department’s contributions, as many students don’t realize until they enroll that it’s possible to major in a language, the self-study says. The department also asserted its student-faculty ratio isn’t nearly as dismal as the university made it seem.
And, said Di Bartolomeo, the department’s tuition revenue exceeds its expenses — by $800,000 in 2022, according to university data. “We actually make the university money,” she said.
That conclusion misses the mark, according to Mark Gavin, associate provost for academic, budget, facilities, and strategic initiatives. Most of the department’s tuition revenue comes from teaching students who need to fulfill a language requirement, which the university is looking to do away with, he said. Units make money for the university only when they generate majors, he said, not when they teach service courses.
When reviewing the department’s self-study, administrators did consider the unit’s double majors, Gavin said. That metric “does not change the reality of the department as we see it. It still leaves them as a large department carrying an appreciable expense profile, serving a small and shrinking number of students.” Critics of cuts to the humanities, including Krebs, argue that a focus on majors understates the value of such programs to their institutions.
A Model for Academic Cuts
Professors in the department thought that bad news was coming. Perhaps the master’s programs wouldn’t make it through and courses would be cut. But the faculty members who spoke to The Chronicle said they and their colleagues had never imagined that the university would recommend axing the entire unit. (The department is appealing the recommendation. The university system’s Board of Governors will vote on final recommendations in September.)
“We have consistently high ratings of our teaching,” said Cynthia S. Chalupa, an associate professor of German. “We have great support from students. We are not losing money. We offer study abroad. How, despite all of these things, can we not be considered an important aspect of the university mission and its education?”
“It never occurred to me that at this point in my career, after having invested so much time in a university I love and of which I’m an alum, that I would have to find some other means of supporting myself,” said Di Bartolomeo, who arrived at WVU in 2005.
Blowback to the university’s decision rippled across academe. L.J. Randolph Jr., president-elect of ACTFL, pointed out that West Virginia’s mission statement, like that of many universities, gestures at its “global” aspirations. “How can you claim that this is part of your mission,” he said, “if you don’t have a language program?”
How can you claim that this is part of your mission if you don’t have a language program?
Critics of the move think the department’s shuttering, if it comes to pass, will do a disservice to future students and to the state, which is one of the nation’s poorest. Kathleen Stein-Smith, an adjunct professor of French at Fairleigh Dickinson University and chair of the American Association of Teachers of French’s commission on advocacy, noted WVU’s role as a flagship university in training the next generation of language instructors. According to a 2017 report, only 13 percent of students in West Virginia’s schools take foreign-language courses, below the national average of 20 percent. That could worsen “if you limit the pipeline of foreign-language teachers,” she said.
Professors and leaders of academic organizations also expressed concern that other colleges could make similar decisions. Krebs, the MLA’s executive director, said she is not worried about R1 institutions’ closing entire languages departments but is concerned about regional comprehensive universities’ “looking at this and saying, ‘Oh, well, maybe this is how we should do it.’” Chalupa thinks that WVU’s recommendation “sets a precedent,” and that it will be “very easy for other universities to follow this model.”
Advocates for world languages also criticized the university’s possible next move of using an online language app to provide language instruction. While apps can be great tools, to really learn a language “you need to communicate with people because that’s what language is,” said Paula Winke, a professor in the department of linguistics, languages, and cultures at Michigan State University.
Gavin, the associate provost, emphasized that the university would still provide language instruction as well as cultural studies and study-abroad opportunities for interested students. “We think we can do it differently than is being done currently,” he said.
Asked whether students would receive the same level of education if WVU joins forces virtually with a Big 12 university or an app, Gavin said that “it remains to be seen,” adding that West Virginia is “committed to finding ways to deliver a quality opportunity, and I think we can do it.” He noted that those two options are not the only ones the university will explore, and that WVU has not started pursuing them in earnest.
The Chronicle asked the makers of two popular language apps about a potential partnership with West Virginia University. Babbel said there is “nothing to comment on.” A spokesperson for Duolingo said that the company had “no plans” to enter into such an agreement.
“To be extra clear, we have never had any conversations with any university about replacing their foreign-language program,” Sam Dalsimer, the spokesperson, said in an email.
In fact, he said, Duolingo is “disheartened” by the WVU news. “This is a sad continuation of a trend of disinvestment in foreign-language education that has been occurring across the United States for over a decade.”
Karin Fischer contributed reporting to this article.