Can You Repeat That in English? We're Global.

cross-posted @ dagblog

University administrators in the United States currently have two diametrically opposed habits.

First, they love to proclaim that their university is becoming more "global." You hear this all the time.

Second, they tend to cut foreign languages from the curriculum.

So, for example:

Strategically located in the state capital of New York, the University at Albany is an internationally recognized public research institution that brings "The World Within Reach" to nearly 18,000 students at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

But this week the President of SUNY Albany has decided to fix the school's budget programs by cutting French, Italian, Russian, and classics. (Theater, too.) And he told the French department they can't admit any more majors and all of them should look for other jobs.

The world will still be in reach, but SUNY's students won't be able to read it.

Eight months back it was the University of Iowa getting rid of German.

University administrators want to think globally. In English.