Jesse Haroldson, contributor

What was once a requirement in all schools, western nations developed the opinion that the learning of ancient, dead languages — like Latin and Greek — was a waste of time and of no use in the workforce outside of scholarly institutions. First, the requirements for such classes were lifted, then funding was pulled back as pools of students with a desire to learn these languages slowly dried up. Now learning Latin or Greek is almost unheard of. However, the cutting of these courses was natural and not systematic. As I may point out, we are worse off for it now being deprived of an essential facet of our societies ancestral roots.

I mourn for the lost languages of old, but I panic for what is happening to our current language courses being taught here at Augsburg. History is bound to repeat itself, it seems, for out of all the departments to receive cuts after this spring, the Language Department may be hit the hardest. One change in particular may be the only killing blow needed, eliminating the Modern Language requirement — one of the proposed changes to the General Education curriculum over the last couple of years. This alone could seal the fate of the department as students could lean towards classes that are less purely memory-based. This is a move that seems desirable to many, yet doing so cuts themselves off from a level of connection and understanding to communities that would have been completely unknown to them otherwise. Higher education is a mode of instilling wider perspectives into students’ minds and ensuring they see the world beyond the most rudimentary upbringing, especially in a monolingual culture like the one we more or less belong to here in the United States.

With this primary assault to the department established, the remaining details seem all the more daunting. With the inevitable reduction in class sizes, the faculty of the department has to now ensure that at least 12 students attend 100-200 level courses, eight students for 300-400 level, and five students for graduate level courses. If any of these classes fall below the minimum, the class is either canceled or the instructor is offered HALF PAY to teach it. Even as a student I’m enraged over such insulting cuts to the compensation of our school’s faculty. Insult to injury is the cutting of summer language courses, further restricting faculty members’ schedules and overall source of income. 

What we are witnessing is the elimination of understanding for the sake of appeasement and greed. I can understand cutbacks, but I cannot stand to watch it happen to a vital vein of education that acts as the lifeblood of communication across cultures, races and ethnicities. For my own language requirement I decided to take American Sign Language (ASL) and proceeded to have my mind blown by getting to know the subculture of deaf communities and their unique relationship with a language that belongs all to their own. In this course I learned the beauty behind the combined flowing movement of the body and passionate facial expressions. It’s a language I fell in love with learning, additionally enabling me to communicate with millions of people I never would have gotten to before. That’s the wonder of learning another language, and that’s to say the wonder of the Modern Language requirement. For all our sakes that requirement must remain.