Dear President Machen,

It must be very clear to you by now that the department of modern languages were targeted to suffer the greatest losses by the latest round of budget cuts, given that 14 of the University’s 20 faculty layoffs are concentrated in this area, and that two of the abolished Ph.D. programs (French and German) are also in this area. It is no exaggeration to say that the cuts will turn back the clock on 25 years of progress made toward internationalizing the University of Florida.

It was almost precisely 25 years ago that the Department of African and Asian Languages was finally made independent (in turn after Germanic and Slavic, Romance, and Classics) from the old Department of Foreign Languages. The intervening years saw amazing growth in the area of internationalization at UF, with the addition of many new languages, the hiring of world-class faculty with serious research programs, and the establishment of two additional (with Latin American Studies) Title VI centers for international studies, viz., African Studies and European Studies.

With the implementation of the proposed cuts, these advances will all be undone in a single blow. UF will return to its status as a provincial center of learning, leaving the negotiation of the next phase of human civilization – the globalization phase – to institutions that have the vision to see it coming and the desire to contribute to its eventual form. Whole portions of the world will be inaccessible to UF students, who will no longer to able to study the languages necessary to work there; the productivity of the affected faculties will suffer, both from the loss of valuable colleagues and the demoralization of remaining faculty members, who see that their contribution to UF’s mission is unappreciated; all three of the Title VI centers will be hard-pressed to achieve renewal of their grants, given the impossibility of showing institutional support.

I was puzzled and disappointed at the way you chose to distribute the mandated cuts. On the one hand, I heard that you did not permit colleges to propose across-the-board cuts, insisting that they target the departments that they considered least central to UF’s mission. But on the other hand, once you had received these proposals, you applied them across-the-board! In other words, rather than making a global determination as to which colleges are most central to UF’s mission, you simply reduced every college by the same amount. It was inevitable, given this scenario, that CLAS would suffer the deepest cuts, since we are just ending a three-year process of building down a $5M deficit. It was universally believed that, in light of this fact and your own insistence on targeted cuts, that you would spare CLAS from the worst of the cuts, given this College’s central status in the University community. I believe that you will one day realize that this action was short-sighted.

I am of course most concerned by the damage that has been done to my department, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. The French faculty has been reduced to the point where our current 163 majors and minors may not be able to finish their degrees, since layoffs in French leave me with 38 credit hours of classes uncovered for 2008-09. One of the layoffs, which will not take place until next year, targets Prof. Alioune Sow, to whom you recently awarded a Teacher of the Year Award. Prof. Sow is a specialist in the most vital part of the modern French curriculum, the study of Francophone literature and culture, i.e., the literatures and cultures of French-speaking peoples outside of France. The four students whose dissertations are currently being directed by Prof. Sow will thus be orphaned, in an academic sense, and undergraduates will be deprived of his very popular courses on African culture. The Center for African Studies has offered to give up $45K in recurring funds to save his position, but Interim Dean Glover is insisting on the full $73K required to replace his salary and benefits. It is amazing to me that UF would be willing to suffer such devastating damage for the sake of saving a few thousand dollars.

I also regret very much the decision to abolish the Ph.D. in French. This degree was first awarded at UF in the early 1970’s, and I count 16 Ph.D.s in French over the last ten years, a pace of production that has been maintained despite steady losses in tenure-track faculty, from 11 in 2001-02 to 7.5 now. These graduates have been very successful in finding tenure-track jobs, and UF’s program was strong enough to induce the French government to award our department one of their highly sought-after research center grants, an arrangement which to date has brought in $280K in support. Every University that UF could possibly consider to be in its peer group has a Ph.D. in French, and the loss of this program will entail a concomitant loss of prestige among our peers.

In closing, I would ask that you find other sources for the the few thousand dollars saved through these cuts, so that UF’s commitment to internationalization can be maintained.

Sincerely,
David Pharies
Professor and Chair,
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

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Dear Bernie, dear Colleagues,

  As the Graduate Research Professor in French, it is my duty to speak out on the proposed budgetary
proposals. I have no objections whatsoever to administrative realignment. I can see any number of
advantages from the proposed new Department of Modern Languages. Ending the PhD program in French is another
matter.   The liberal arts and sciences in general, and the humanities in particular, are the central core, the
heart and soul, of higher education in America. No university, public or private, with aspirations to
reach the top ten can do so with a depleted, wounded humanities core. From my perspecive, at the center of
our humanist endeavor (or at one of the centers) is the defence and illustration of Western civilization,
the high culture that we inherit from Greece, Rome, and Israel, and from medieval and modern Europe, and
that makes us what we are. A high culture of  literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, music,
philosophy, and sacred theology. The countries that gave us the most are France, Germany, Italy, and
Russia -- I would say in roughly that order and with England inserted somewhere in the middle. At the
center of that civilization, for a thousand years, stands France, the land that gave to us romanesque and
Gothic architecture, chivalry and courtly love, polyphony and secular song, Calvinism and the Catholic
Counterreformation, the Enlightenment, the Rights of Man, and the Internationale.   All top-ten public research universities and all
our peer institutions offer a full graduate program in French, including the PhD. None of the top-ten and
none of our peers has and none could imagine cutting the PhD in French.
   Ours is a strong French "section" in the larger Department of Romance Languages. We produce a steady
number of PhD's, more than in Classics and Religion, well more than in the other two institutions in the
state that also offer the French PhD (FSU and Miami). All of our PhDs -- all -- who seek academic jobs have
found academic jobs. Ours is the only French program in  Florida to have been included in the NRC
assessment of graduate programs. Ours is one of the few programs in the country to offer a linguistics
track at all levels.
   Our faculty is highly productive and committed with passion to research, teaching, and creating the best
program possible. In my own case, I can count eleven books, 100 articles, 200 papers and lectures, thirteen
plenary session addresses, ten national/international grants, three literary awards. I am far from being
alone. All our people are of the first class in their work and their fields. Whether we do medieval poetry,
the eighteenth-century novel, or contemporary fiction and cinema from througout the French-speaking world,
whether we do sociolinguistics, second-language aquisition, or historical philology, we are known and
respected in the profession nationally and internationally. We have two research centers, one
here and one in Paris.   Where is the money to be saved by destroying such a program? Are there not other ways of finding the
equivalent of one assistant professor's salary? Is this the right thing to do?
  I urge you, Bernie and my dear Colleagues, to reconsider this whole business.
  Most respectfully yours,
William Calin
Graduate Research Professor
Department of Romance Languages

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May 6, 2008
Dear President Machen:

            We, the undersigned members of the Spanish Section of Romance Languages and Literatures, wish to voice our strong opposition to proposed cuts to our sister program in French, namely, the elimination of their PhD, which has produced several outstanding graduates in recent years, and the dismissal of Alioune Sow, a highly valued colleague.   

              Eliminating the PhD in French would save pennies and have serious effects on UF’s national standing.  Among all the universities considered our peers, or our aspirational group, UF would be the only one lacking a PhD in French, one of the core disciplines of the Western tradition since the Renaissance.

            We are also profoundly dismayed by the proposed dismissal of a tenure-track faculty member, Dr. Alioune Sow, who has brought thematic, regional and racial diversity to the French program, to the Center for African Studies and to UF.  He recently won an award for his outstanding teaching, and is held in very high esteem by his colleagues here and abroad, as well as by his students. He is currently directing four PhD dissertations, which speaks to his importance in the program. He is precisely the kind of faculty member UF should be fighting to retain.

            Please reconsider this grave threat to UF's intellectual diversity, reputation and vitality.

Geraldine C. Nichols
Coordinator, Spanish Section
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

The following faculty members have authorized the inclusion of their name by e-mail:
Jessi Aaron
Luis Álvarez Castro
Shifra Armon
Efraín Barradas
Joaquim Camps
Kathy Dwyer-Navajas
Reynaldo Jiménez
Gillian Lord
David Pharies
Martín Sorbille

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Dear President Machen,

The proposed merger of language departments, and the elimination of the French and Philosophy PhD programs, is not consistent with UF's mission to "advance the state, nation, and the international community by strengthening the human condition and improving the quality of life." The intellectual health of an institution of higher education is measured by its ability to foster new ideas and to produce the intellectual leaders of the future. Our French program, as a part of a healthy RLL Department that has continued to thrive despite recent disproportionate losses, has been doing just that. Its PhD program has produced outstanding students who have placed well, and its cooperation with the FFRI, directed by Carol Murphy, has brought the spark of international interdisciplinary discussion to the university, increasing UF's visibility and vitality. These proposed changes -- cutting its PhD program, dividing a healthy and successful department, and laying off an award-winning new professor who brought regional, thematic and racial diversity to the department and to UF -- are nonsensical. Certainly the intellectual, status and human costs to UF outweigh the potential benefits of removing one concentration from one PhD program.

By eliminating the most advanced levels of instruction in cornerstones of intellectual tradition such as French and Philosophy, UF will take a long step back into mediocrity. This, along with the melding of world languages (except Spanish) into one large department, evokes an image of UF as an institution with little concern for the well-being of our international community, little respect for the diversity and richness of world cultures, languages, and literatures, and little credibility among its peers. It is likewise unthinkable for any reputable institution to do without PhD programs in French or Philosophy. Certainly these cuts could be made in an area of less impact, in a way that would not so blatantly contradict UF's Mission Statement.

The fact that these decisions were taken without adequate faculty input makes them all the more deplorable. I urge the President to reconsider these proposed changes in view of the long-term impacts on Florida, the UF community and UF's reputation.

Sincerely,
Jessi Elana Aaron
Assistant Professor of Spanish, RLL

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Dear President Machen, Dear Faculty Senate Chair Bova,

I am the French Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Romance 
Languages and Literatures, and learned yesterday the proposed 
elimination of the Ph.D. Graduate program, as well as the 
appalling proposed dismissal of my colleague, Dr. Alioune Sow. In 
addition, the French faculty members were notified that two 
lecturers' positions were likely to be cancelled. This is a 
severe blow to the French section that ignores the highly regarded 
achievements and contributions of the French faculty to the 
University of Florida in terms of teaching, research, and service. 
The proposed cuts in the program and the number of faculty members 
would drastically restrict the national visibility of the French 
program, above and beyond the projected cancellation of the Ph.D. 
program.

I Vitality of the French Graduate Program

Every year, the French Graduate Committee at UF receives excellent 
applications and recruits Graduate students at the M.A. and Ph.D. 
levels, partly because of the appeal of the two-track 
specialization we offer in Linguistics, and in Literature, and 
because of the nationally and internationally recognized quality 
of our professors.Our program awards fellowships available for 
research and study abroad, and our Ph.D. students take advantage 
of these grants to do archival work connected with their 
dissertation. Several M.A. students elect to pursue their Ph.D. in 
our Department, and those who apply elsewhere are admitted in 
prestigious programs, most recently, Penn and Illinois. Ph.D. 
students acquire professional competence in our program, and the 
placement of our Ph.D. graduates is excellent, nearing 100%, 
generally in tenure-track positions at very good colleges or 
universities, most recently, Delaware, Auburn, Arizona State, 
SUNY-Cortland, Pittsburgh-Johnstown, College of New Jersey.

II Contributions of Dr. Alioune Sow to the French Graduate 
Program

Our Literature program is heavily indebted to Dr. Alioune Sow, 
whose area of expertise is Francophone literature, especially 
Sub-Saharan literature, and whose research, that has started to 
gain scholarly recognition in the field, revolves around 
autobiographical, childhood narratives, and Malian cultural 
productions (in literature and cinema). Since the retirement of 
Dr. Bernadette Cailler, he has been the only professor of 
reference in this teaching and research area in our department. A 
consultation of the Job List of the main association in our field, 
The Modern Language Association, proves the high demand of 
Assistant Professors of French specializing in Francophone 
Literature throughout the US. Currently Francophone literature is 
also one of the most requested areas of expertise in French 
studies among Ph.D. students. Out of 21 currently enrolled 
Graduate Students or students writing a dissertation or a thesis, 
Dr. Sow supervises three Francophone Ph.D. dissertations, and is 
the director of two Francophone M.A. theses, in addition to being 
a member of other Ph.D. committees. With his supervising role, Dr. 
Sow fulfills an indispensable role in our section. In addition, 
Dr. Sow is a teacher who crucially contributes to the French 
Graduate program by providing courses, such as his course on 
France and metissage, offered in the Spring of 2008, that bring 
out the cultural and literary diversity that a French program must 
be able to demonstrate in the twenty-first century in order not to 
seem outdated or provincial. Again, Dr. Sow's expertise in that 
field is currently indispensable to our program. I will conclude 
by saying that last academic year Dr. Sow was nominated and 
received the prestigious UF award of Outstanding Professor of the 
Year in recognition of his achievements as a professor. His 
teaching role extends to the French Undergraduate program and the 
Center of African studies, as I am convinced other colleagues have 
brought to your attention.

In view of the immense harm that the cancellation of the Ph.D. 
program and the dismissal of Dr. Sow would bring to the French 
program, I hope that you will reconsider your decision and the 
impact it would have on the University of Florida.

Sincerely,

Brigitte Weltman-Aron
Associate Professor of French
French Graduate Coordinator

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Dear President Machen and Faculty Council Chair Bova,

We write because of great concern about proprosed PhD program eliminations that have been announced with no previous consultation with the affected departments.  Contrary to all conventions of shared governance that are in place at the University of Florida, the decisions to eliminate the PhD in French, German and Philosophy were made by a single individual, and with no rationale provided. 

While we cannot speak to the programs in German or Philosophy, as members of the French section we can attest to the vibrancy of that program.  We currently have 21 students enrolled in our graduate program.  In the past ten years, we have graduated 16 PhDs, the large majority of whom have gone on to tenure-track positions at excellent institutions -- Delaware, Auburn, Arizona State, SUNY-Cortland, Pittsburgh-Johnstown, College of New Jersey, etc. – this despite an ever-decreasing number of ranked faculty  (see attached for specific ratios).  In addition, our MA production has remained constant, with our graduates moving on to PhD programs at excellent universities (most recently, Penn for French literature, Illinois for French linguistics) or moving into lectureships at respected institutions:  University of Central Florida, Grand Valley State University (MI). 

The loss of our PhD program will have massive ripple effects throughout the French section.  First and foremost, it will lower the ranking of French at UF nationally.  Secondly, it will affect our ability to recruit students into our MA program, many of whom come with intention of continuing on for the PhD.  Elimination of the PhD in French will also undoubtedly mean withdrawal of the French government’s support for the France-Florida Research Institute.  This support, to date, has brought in over $280,000 to the University of Florida for interdisciplinary research in a variety of fields (including the sciences as well as the humanities), but was only possible because of the existence of a strong French program, with a PhD. 

These changes, combined with the lay-offs specifically targeting faculty in language departments, contradict the mission of our University to participate in ‘an educational process that links the history of the Western Europe with the traditions and cultures of all societies’. French at UF is central to fulfilling this mission since we integrate literature, linguistics and culture, and our program in French is also committed to offering a broad vision of the role of French in today’s world, as illustrated by the research done by the faculty and by the area of studies embraced by our PhD students.  As you know, French is not only linked to Western Europe but is spoken throughout the world.  The proposed dismissal of Dr. Alioune Sow, a tenure-track faculty member who is also part of the Center for African Studies, will be particularly detrimental to the fulfillment of this mission. Dr. Sow has made invaluable contributions to this diversity through his research in Francophone literature and culture, and since the retirement of Dr. Bernadette Cailler, is our only specialist in Sub-Saharan and Magrebin studies, an area in great demand among our students in French. He recently won an award for his outstanding teaching and is also highly valued by the many graduate students who work under his supervision.

We note, in closing, that the targeted lay-offs in all the language units will affect the diversity necessary to make ‘significant contributions within a increasingly global community,’ another statement made in our UF mission statement. We hope that you will seriously reconsider these announced program eliminations and lay-offs.

Sincerely,

Theresa A. Antes                                                         
Associate Professor of French and Linguistics
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures      

Hélène Blondeau
Assistant Professor of French and Linguistics
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

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