Trustees approve erasing French major from bulletin

On Friday, April 4, Wilkes University's Board of Trustees granted approval to remove the French major of the Foreign Languages program. The Curriculum Committee and the Academic Planning Committee had also previously approved the call for elimination of the degree.

According to Dr. Darin Fields, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the decision to drop the program was "regrettable," but necessary.

"We have had neither the full-time faculty nor available adjuncts to deliver upper level courses in French since 1998 or '99, but the major has stayed on the books because of joint initiatives with King's [College]… We haven't had any French majors in the program for over four years," said Fields.

Aside from the lack of a full faculty for a French program, Fields also noted that student interest hasn't been strong in recent years. This semester alone, a combined total of 25 students are in both Elementary French I and II.

The elimination of the French major will also serve to update the Foreign Languages and Literatures section of the Undergraduate Bulletin. Since the Bulletin's purpose is to serve as an accurate reflection of the university's offerings, a formal presentation and approval by the Board was necessary to remove the program from its pages. An updated and accurate bulletin will aid Wilkes in the renewal of accreditation by Middle States in upcoming years.

"It's regrettable that we won't be able to offer French, but it's not a new development. We haven't been able to offer it for quite some time. Now it's official," said Fields. "The reality of foreign language programs in higher ed is that, as a whole, they're slowly disappearing, which is regrettable in America."

Though the major will no longer be offered, Wilkes will continue to offer Elementary French I and II (FR 101, 102) to students who may be interested in filling their Area I distribution requirements or learning the basics. Fields also said that if a significant number of students express interest in taking upper level French courses at Wilkes, the university may be able to offer the courses in the future.

This is good news for Wilkes students who still hold an interest in learning more about the French language, culture and literature, such as Joseph Stoffey, freshman psychology major.

"I'm definitely genuinely interested in learning the language. The first time I took it in high school, I only wanted to take it because nearly everybody was taking Spanish and I wanted to go against the grain, but I started to really like it. My goal is to be able to speak it fluently, partially because I'd enjoy being bilingual for all of the perks it entails, and partially because fluently-spoken French sounds fun to speak; all of the words seem to 'flow' together," said Stoffey, who is currently enrolled in Elementary French II.

While there has been unofficial, non-substantive discussion concerning ideas of developing courses or programs in foreign languages that are common today, such as Chinese or Arabic, Spanish will remain the only foreign language major offered through Wilkes for the time being. Focus has currently been placed on solidifying the Spanish program and possibly converting a visiting position into a tenure position in the future.

"The Spanish major is not in any way affected by this. The elimination of the French major should not be seen as posing a warning or threat to Spanish; Spanish is healthy, it's fine. The reality is that we just had to take [French] out of the bulletin," said Fields.