Department's elimination lacks vision
From the editors
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Opinion
M ost other top-tier university in the country have a German department. This week, news of the decision by Howard Gillman, dean of the College of Arts, Letters & Sciences, to cut the university's German department began to spread.
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.
Germany has the world's third largest economy and is a leader in developing renewable energy technology. Nearly 200 million people speak German across the globe, and Germans have made significant contributions to numerous academic fields, including history, philosophy, physics and literature.
The process by which the decision was made is absurd. The decision came without consulting the German department or other chairs, the faculty or students who would be affected by the department's removal. Conclaves do not befit a university.
Yet, Gillman is not the department's only executioner. Former Dean Joseph Aoun, now president of Northeastern University in Boston, decided year after year to not rehire professors in the department. He systematically starved it but was unwilling to strike the final blow.
When Gillman took office last summer, he found himself with only the remnants of a successful department. Therefore, in some ways, his decision to cut his losses is understandable. Still, why kill a department instead of revive it? It's an act of convenience instead of courage.
Gillman was conveniently in Washington, D.C. when the news broke this week. Undergraduate Programs' Vice Dean Steven Lamy and Associate Dean Richard Fliegel were left to endure the heat of outraged students and faculty at Tuesday's meeting.
The deans insisted they have no plans to knife any other department - but they didn't exactly give warning to this one either.
Unilaterally eliminating one department scatters seeds of distrust among other small department within the College. Fear bears little fruit.
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.
Germany has the world's third largest economy and is a leader in developing renewable energy technology. Nearly 200 million people speak German across the globe, and Germans have made significant contributions to numerous academic fields, including history, philosophy, physics and literature.
The process by which the decision was made is absurd. The decision came without consulting the German department or other chairs, the faculty or students who would be affected by the department's removal. Conclaves do not befit a university.
Yet, Gillman is not the department's only executioner. Former Dean Joseph Aoun, now president of Northeastern University in Boston, decided year after year to not rehire professors in the department. He systematically starved it but was unwilling to strike the final blow.
When Gillman took office last summer, he found himself with only the remnants of a successful department. Therefore, in some ways, his decision to cut his losses is understandable. Still, why kill a department instead of revive it? It's an act of convenience instead of courage.
Gillman was conveniently in Washington, D.C. when the news broke this week. Undergraduate Programs' Vice Dean Steven Lamy and Associate Dean Richard Fliegel were left to endure the heat of outraged students and faculty at Tuesday's meeting.
The deans insisted they have no plans to knife any other department - but they didn't exactly give warning to this one either.
Unilaterally eliminating one department scatters seeds of distrust among other small department within the College. Fear bears little fruit.
Viewing Comments 1 - 9 of 9
matt k.
posted 4/10/08 @ 11:04 AM PST
Well put. The administration needed to manage this much better. If they were going to kill the department, at least offer a timeframe for students and faculty, perhaps two or three years. (Continued…)
Kate
posted 4/11/08 @ 4:25 PM PST
For those who want to learn german I suggest you attend UCLA instead of USC. Better program, better school, just plain better.
James
posted 4/11/08 @ 10:05 PM PST
This event has truly embarrassed me as an alum. It not only demonstrates a lack of faithfulness to Gillman's installation speech last fall (http://college. (Continued…)
Jordan
posted 4/13/08 @ 4:28 PM PST
A courageous and wonderfully accurate editorial from the DT. While correctly labeled an "administrative" decision (since it was... made by the administration), this characterization (from the administration/Deans, of course) belies the across-the-board, collective impact this decision will have on the university. (Continued…)
Jaline Coman
posted 4/14/08 @ 12:03 AM PST
I majored in German as USC, graduated in 1977, it was one of the best programs in the country, with a German semester where all units were taken in German w/ authors and artists of all types brought from German-speaking countries to teach here. (Continued…)
Bill Baldwin, Jr
posted 4/14/08 @ 2:55 AM PST
The German Department is being 86'd by Howard Gillman, Dean of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, while President Sample is being lauded for bringing USC out of the "party school" category to a so-called Dream Choice status. (Continued…)
Allison Norman
posted 4/14/08 @ 5:21 PM PST
As a graduating senior and soon-to-be grad student, I am incredibly dismayed at the fate of the USC German department. Humanities subjects already account for less than 25% of college majors in the US, and that number is shrinking as both students and schools choose to pay attention only to those disciplines which have a reputation for producing financial wealth. (Continued…)
Robert
posted 4/15/08 @ 1:24 PM PST
Do you realize that the way you wrote this makes it sound as if no one can learn German? It will still be taught, still be a major, it just won't have its own department anymore, just like Arabic and other languages, not to mention other programs. (Continued…)
Bill Baldwin, Jr
posted 4/16/08 @ 4:03 AM PST
LAS Dean Howard Gillman was conveniently out of town when the announcement was made that he was eliminating the German Department at USC.
Forgetting for the moment the absurdity of the decision itself, I wondered about the tactic of leaving your # 2 to take the heat while you hide out in Washington DC and what that tactic tells us about the person making the decision. (Continued…)
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