2008 Woodie Awards
Russian Studies: remake or remove?
By: Meredith McGrady
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: News
The Russian Studies program at DePauw is in danger of being cut. The interdisciplinary program was suspended last summer: prior to the discussion, the committee in charge of the Russian Studies program had been discussing cutting it.
Under the current proposal, Russian Studies courses would still exist in the University catalog, but a major and minor would no longer be offered. Russian language courses would still be offered through the 200-level.
Masha Belyavski-Frank, professor of modern languages, said the committee was looking into changing the program to focus more on Russia and Eastern European nations.
The Russian Studies program was originally designed as an interdisciplinary major between the history, political science and modern language departments. As a result, the committee members that advise the major are not in the same department. All members of the committee were off-campus last semester on sabbatical when the program was put on suspension.
Instead of giving up, Belyavski-Frank said that the committee is restructuring the progam, stating that this situation is a "tremendous opportunity for us to look to other departments and get new ideas, possibly in the school of music, English or religion."
Some students are concerned about the fate of the program. Freshman Hillary Wilson-Yue started a Facebook group and a petition to help save the program. The petition received 75 signatures.
"I just did it to show that there was interest in the program," Wilson-Yue said.
The interest in the program has waned in the past years, according to Belyavski-Frank. Last year, only four students were enrolled in Elementary Russian. But this fall, 15 students signed up for the class.
Belyavski-Frank said that of those 15 students, seven or eight are seriously considering majors or minors in the Russian Studies program, if it still exists when it comes time for them to declare.
One of these students, freshman Andrew Repp, said that he planned on minoring in Russian Studies. This past fall, he took elementary Russian and Julia Bruggerman's Russian history course.
Under the current proposal, Russian Studies courses would still exist in the University catalog, but a major and minor would no longer be offered. Russian language courses would still be offered through the 200-level.
Masha Belyavski-Frank, professor of modern languages, said the committee was looking into changing the program to focus more on Russia and Eastern European nations.
The Russian Studies program was originally designed as an interdisciplinary major between the history, political science and modern language departments. As a result, the committee members that advise the major are not in the same department. All members of the committee were off-campus last semester on sabbatical when the program was put on suspension.
Instead of giving up, Belyavski-Frank said that the committee is restructuring the progam, stating that this situation is a "tremendous opportunity for us to look to other departments and get new ideas, possibly in the school of music, English or religion."
Some students are concerned about the fate of the program. Freshman Hillary Wilson-Yue started a Facebook group and a petition to help save the program. The petition received 75 signatures.
"I just did it to show that there was interest in the program," Wilson-Yue said.
The interest in the program has waned in the past years, according to Belyavski-Frank. Last year, only four students were enrolled in Elementary Russian. But this fall, 15 students signed up for the class.
Belyavski-Frank said that of those 15 students, seven or eight are seriously considering majors or minors in the Russian Studies program, if it still exists when it comes time for them to declare.
One of these students, freshman Andrew Repp, said that he planned on minoring in Russian Studies. This past fall, he took elementary Russian and Julia Bruggerman's Russian history course.
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