Devin Clemens will be able to take the third-year German class he needs to finish his major, but students coming after him won’t be so lucky.

Clemens is the president of Speak Up!, which describes itself on Facebook as “a student based initiative created by students to raise awareness over the current issues plaguing the Languages and Linguistics Department.” He has been vocal at both of the town hall meetings addressing the sessional cuts and tuition increases facing students in the arts and humanities.

“Language affects the college on such a vast level,” he said. “On every possible form of media the university is pushing this international image…. It’s quite frankly not possible without languages and exchanges.”

Languages at the University of Saskatchewan are suffering under the budget cuts being implemented across the College of Arts and Science.

Though neither the university nor the college budgets have been released, students have caught wind of likely funding cuts from tutorial leaders and professors as well as the two town hall meetings held by the college.

German, for example, will no longer be offered as a major. No second-year classes will be available next year. There will, however, be a single third-year course.

As it is, most tutorials, where students actually get a chance to learn and practice language skills, are taught by exchange students.

Elena Hagemann is a tutorial leader on exchange from Germany. She leads the tutorial for the lone third-year German course. Instruction in the course was offered online, so she was the only person students saw.

Last semester, Hagemann taught a beginner tutorial for German 114. There were 40 students in that tutorial alone.

“I did not know how to incorporate every student, especially as they all have different questions about the course material,” she said.

Soon, beginner language courses could see even more inflated classes. Spanish classes might hold as many as 125 students.

With classes that large, “the class and the tutorial would be of no use,” said Hagemann.

Along with French, Spanish and German, the Languages and Linguistics department offers courses in Ukrainian and Russian as part of the modern languages degree, and introductory level Latin, Cree and Chinese. Only French can be completed as a four-year major. Some of these courses, while on the calendar, are not actually offered yearly.

“The University of Alberta offers 16 languages. We struggle to maintain three,” said Clemens.

Hagemann, too, is frustrated by the dearth of language classes.

“I am astonished that no [upper-year] Cree is offered, although the U of S is so proud of their aboriginal students,” she said, adding that cultural understanding is developed through language courses as well.

The cultural implications of fewer language classes ripple through the rest of the university. Garry Gable, a U of S music teacher, pointed out the need for languages in musical study.

“As a classical singer I have sung in some 15 languages — though I am only fluent in English. I have taken language study in each of French, Italian and German specifically, and then have been trained in pronunciation and elocution in the others for singing purposes,” said Gable.

Clemens wants to see the basic language courses reestablished. He is in the process of communicating with various levels of the university to see that achieved.

“I don’t want to go the archaic or barbaic way, but if it comes to it there’s no doubt that I will make a picket sign and do my peaceful protest,” said Clemens.

He acknowledged that the deans and vice deans care about the issues, but complained that many responses at the last Town Hall were vague and merely acknowledged the problem without offering solutions.

The administration allots about $50 million to the College of Arts and Science, and the college itself administers those funds to the various departments.

“Subsidiary decisions should be made at the lowest level that’s competent to make the decision,” said university provost and vice-president academic Brett Fairbairn, explaining the administration’s hands-off attitude to the funding troubles. He said that arts and science — the largest college in the university — receives the most university funding, but could not identify what that worked out to per student.

“It is clear that a university like ours is called on to do many things. There are things we should do less of and more we should do more of,” said Fairbairn.

“I do expect priorities to change over time.”

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image: Pete Yee/The Sheaf