Dear President Machen and Faculty Senate Chair Bova,

 This morning with great regret, we at USF are all looking at what is below.  I do hope first, it is not true or second, that the decision can
be reversed as soon as possible. What a blow to French.  I'm sure the French government will regret this terribly.

 Over the years I have interacted with the fine faculty in Romance Languages on many occasions, the most recent being an international
conference held here at USF in late March at which Carol Murphy delivered a very important invited lecture.  We also work together with
the French Consulate in Miami on several important statewide projects, notably regarding education and the teaching of the French language,
literature and culture in Florida (congress of last June involving high level participants from the French government and from the State of
Florida). I have sent large numbers of students to UF's doctoral program in French over the years and currently have several of my former
students there in the Ph.D. program.  Of course I can send the students out of state (and sometimes do), but UF's library holdings in French are
among the best (I use them myself)and the professors highly distinguished internationally.

I do hope this reported decision is incorrect or can be corrected very soon.

Warmly,
Christine
Christine M. Probes, Ph.D., Associate Professor of French Language, Literature, and Culture and
Associate Director, Humanities Institute of USF

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Dear Sir,

I have recently learned that the University of Florida is considering doing away with the Ph.D. program in French.  I believe that this decision should be reconsidered because of its potential impact on French studies in the United States.  I must tell you that two of the members of the French Department,  Raymond Gay-Crosier and Carol Murphy, are members of the editorial board of the French Review.  As Editor in Chief of this journal (the official journal of the American Association of Teachers of French), which has the largest distribution of any scholarly journal of French studies in the world, I have had the pleasure of working with both of these outstanding scholars.  They are two of the very best editors of the 40 individuals who serve on our editorial board.  I also know that they are respected internationally for there scholarly work.  The same is true for William Calin, a renowned medievalist, whose work and reputation are known to me.  My point is that while there are many weak Ph.D. programs in French in the United States, the University of Florida has an outstanding Ph.D. program.  It should be maintained so that Ph.D. students can get some of the best training available from first-rate and experienced scholars who write with clarity and grace.  I have been told that there would be little cost involved in retaining the Ph.D. program.  Program quality should always be the first criterion in decisions about academic programs, but cost is always a factor in such decisions.  It seems to me that you can have both in this case, and I urge you to act favorably on the Ph.D. program in French.  This can only benefit the University of Florida  and French studies in the United States.

Sincerely yours,

Chris Pinet

Christopher P. Pinet
Editor in Chief
French Review
Dept. of Modern Languages & Literature
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717

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Dear Friends:

I am sending this message as an outside observer,  but one who would much prefer to argue for language programs based on their merits: the quality of their curriculum, the services they provide to a diverse array of students, the value of retaining a broad selection of modern languages (and affiliated international programs) at a public university. That does not seem to be the case at the University of Florida.

All of our current local and national fiscal problems can be seen as unique challenges to our individual and collective imaginations. Have we created a process that brings our academic community together in order to meet these challenges? Are we even asking the right questions? If we think creatively, then our present difficulties might well be opportunities for strengthening our community. But if we think only in terms of sacrificing some of our members, then one has to wonder what sort of community we will be at the end of this process. “Simply throwing someone out of the lifeboat” can not be a satisfactory answer to a question that penetrates to the very essence of our academic institutions. If we respond to a fiscal crisis with such a grievous, self-inflicted wound, then how well do we exemplify the humane values of community, creativity, and critical thinking that we so passionately teach to our students?

Better, surely, to work together in a spirit of solidarity, with a shared concern for the health of our colleges and the universities, to defend the principles of our intellectual institutions and to find solutions that will help everyone to survive into a more prosperous future.

Sincerely,

Kay LaBahn Clark
Professor of German
Humboldt State University
Arcata, California

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Dear President Machen,

I have just learned of your proposal to merge the Romance Languages department
and eliminate a number of faculty positions, along with the Ph.D. in French. 
This news is all the more distressing as the University of Florida's Romance
Languages department has an excellent international reputation, especially in
the areas of French and Spanish Linguistics.  I understand the need for budget
cuts, but I wonder whether these short-term cost-saving measures will damage
the reputation of your institution in the long term.  Looking at the budget
reduction proposal
(http://www.president.ufl.edu/budget-reduction/proposal.html), the humanities
and students from visible minorities seem to bear a disproportionate burden of
the cuts.  I would urge you to find other ways to meet the budget cuts without
adversely affecting the university's diversity and its academic reputation.

Sincerely,

James A. Walker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Linguistics

       +----------------------------------------------------+
       | James A. Walker                Associate Professor |
       | Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics |
       | York University            E-mail: jamesw@yorku.ca |
       | 4700 Keele St.           Tel.: 416-736-2100 x33792 |
       | Toronto, ON M3J 1P3              Fax: 416-736-5483 |
       | >>>>>>>>>>> http://www.yorku.ca/jamesw <<<<<<<<<<< |
       +----------------------------------------------------+


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Dear President Machen, dear colleagues,
It is with great distress that we have learned of your proposal to
downsize your Romance Languages department, close the French Ph.D.
(among others) and lay off lecturers and tenure-stream staff. These
short-sighted cuts may seem to address an immediate budgetary crisis,
but they spell a much more serious mid-to-long-term loss which it will
be very hard for your institution to recover from. The closure of
these programs would be particularly disastrous in its impact on
diversity, as it will disproportionately affect women and visible
minorities among your faculty.

Can your university really afford the lasting damage it will sustain
by making these cuts? I urge you to reconsider these ill-advised cuts
and move instead to protect these programs.

Collegially,

David Heap, Ph.D.
Director, MA program in Linguistics, University of Western Ontario
University College 133: (519) 661-2111 x85709.
www.uwo.ca/linguistics/grad

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