Tech is potentially cutting French and German from its Department of Foreign Languages.
On Wednesday March 27 the foreign language faculty found out about potential cuts to its French and German programs. The cuts are said to be due to low enrollment. This came as a surprise as the faculty originally thought the time frame for recruitment was going to be one to two years to properly advertise the two languages to potential students.
There are currently 46 enrolled majors across French, German and Spanish. There are also 128 minors in the languages.
If the cuts go through, Spanish will be the only foreign language option.
Dr. Martin Sheehan, chair and professor of German, discussed the potential cuts.
“There is talk of what is called a teach out plan,” Sheehan said, “What was proposed was having current faculty or adjunct faculty be hired to support the students as they complete their degrees, if the restructuring plan goes through.”
Only two faculty members who may be affected have tenure, both being in the German program. Tenure requires that Tech tries to relocate qualified faculty into vacancies before termination is allowed as an option.
The other two faculty are lectures on renewable contracts. One is up for renewal this year, but the other has already been renewed meaning a disruption of their contract.
“What we’re seeing is a misunderstanding of what current Tech students want and what education looks like nowadays,” Sheehan said, “Our double majors tend to be stem majors, those who want to work for more internationally focused companies in the state.”
There are 129 German and 72 French companies in Tennessee. These companies have a total employment of 33,577. Fluency in those languages gives an advantage to those interested in working at said companies or even at an international level.
If French and German are cut from Tech’s Department of Foreign Languages, students may lose out on valuable skills and have less of a chance to stand out in the job market.
Posts on social media and a petition on Change.org, which has garnered over 1,300 signatures, shows support for keeping the languages.
“I think that shows the level of support that we have. Everybody has a deep connection to languages they’ve taken and if they are taking it or they want to take it,” Sheehan said.
“In our courses we get to know our students very well, they’re talking about themselves, what they like, what they don’t like, what their career plans are.”
Students who double major may be persuaded to drop the languages, even if they already have credits towards the double major.
Students with French or German majors will have it worse as they may have to move schools or drop out entirely.
Ella Neal, a third-year French major, shared her dissatisfaction with the potential cuts.
“I think it was a very impulsive decision,” Ella said. “Since that’s the only major I have, that’s the only thing I’m really interested in here.”
She added, “If they do cut the classes, I’ve already thought about dropping out or transferring.”
This sudden decision to cut French and German leaves many faculty and students wondering what comes next.
