[MGSA-L] FW: Modern Greek at Cornell

[Gail Holst-Warhaft]

Adjunct Professor Gail Holst-Warhaft
Cornell University
Director, Mediterranean Studies Initiative
Faculty Associate, Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future
Institute for European Studies
Uris 120
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
t. 607.255.1554
f. 607.255.1565



________________________________
From: Gail Holst-Warhaft [glh3 at cornell.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 11:32 AM
To: mgsa-l-request at uci.edu
Subject: FW: Modern Greek at Cornell

I'm not sure this was received so I am re-sending it.
Adjunct Professor Gail Holst-Warhaft
Cornell University
Director, Mediterranean Studies Initiative
Faculty Associate, Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future
Institute for European Studies
Uris 120
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
t. 607.255.1554
f. 607.255.1565



________________________________
From: Gail Holst-Warhaft
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 11:31 AM
To: MGSA-l.request at uci.edu
Subject: Modern Greek at Cornell

                                       Modern Greek at Cornell: a clarification

As I have been the principle person involved with Modern Greek Studies at Cornell, I would like to clarify what has happened and why the issue has reached the Cornell, Greek-American and Greek national media.

Budget cuts at Cornell, as at most universities in the US,  have been deep, and a number of "lesser-taught languages" have been terminated as a result. Dutch and Swedish, which both had healthy enrollments and excellent teachers, have been cut, and our distinguished Russian department, where Vladimir Naobokov taught,  has ceased to exist. It is not surprising that Greek has also been cut. While I am strongly opposed to the cuts in languages, which offer the best value for money of any courses on the campus in my opinion, I don't think there is much hope for any change in the Arts College's policy.

One of my students, who is of Greek descent and who intended to take Greek as his obligatory language, was extremely upset when he found out that Greek would not be available next semester and decided to do whatever he could to draw attention to the situation. He called the Cornell Sun who published an article about it. The present Greek instructor, Matoula Halkiopoulos, who is teaching Intermediate Greek, then wrote a letter to the Sun offering to teach Greek without payment. Not surprisingly, Cornell responded that this would not be permitted.

The Hellenic Students' Association at Cornell is now collectively trying to find some solution. I support their efforts while understanding that nothing except a combination of high enrollments and outside financial support would have any effect. I want to stress that this is not a decision of any department, but rather of the College of Arts and Sciences, which is in turn following policy dictated by the University's efforts to trim the budget.




Adjunct Professor Gail Holst-Warhaft
Cornell University
Director, Mediterranean Studies Initiative
Faculty Associate, Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future
Institute for European Studies
Uris 120
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
t. 607.255.1554
f. 607.255.1565


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/attachments/20110301/d2b0dbcc/attachment.html