Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1936 [PAGE 211]

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President Arthur Cutts

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

209 June 1, 1935

IVillard,

Administration

Building

DEAR PRESIDENT W I L L A R D :

Under date of May 20, 1935, you requested the Committee on Educational Policy to consider the desirability of establishing a Chair of Slavonic Languages in the University, and to report to you as soon as possible in order that the question might be presented to the Senate at its meeting on June 3, 1935. Since receiving your communication, the Committee has made a careful study of the matter, and has conferred individually with many members of the faculty in order to determine the probable demand for such courses. We have also conferred with the members of the Special Committee, appointed on February 27, 1934, by Acting President Daniels, to consider the same proposal brought to the attention of the University by the Czechoslovak National Council of America. As a result of its investigations, the Committee is unanimously of the opinion that to undertake expansion in the direction indicated would be unwise at the present time, unless the additional cost thereby entailed would be covered from sources other than the Public Funds of the State. To obtain an instructor of the type the University would wish to place in charge of such courses probably would require a salary of at least four thousand dollars per annum. In addition, liberal expenditures for books and periodicals would be necessary, particularly during the first few years. T h u s a Chair of Slavonic Languages would probably necessitate a minimum annual expenditure of five thousand dollars. In view of the retrenchment policy which every part of the University has been compelled to adopt during recent years, the Committee is of the opinion that to embark upon an adventure of the sort in question would be unfortunate. In this connection, the fact should not be overlooked that for work already established, the purchase of books, supplies, and items of permanent equipment has been curtailed to the point where replacement and additions are becoming more and more imperative. T h e Committee also has considerable doubt as to the demand for courses in the Slavonic Languages. As was pointed out by the Special Committee, of which Director Windsor was chairman, the cultural advantages which accrue from the study of a foreign language are rather slight if based upon less than two years of study. Indeed, courses beyond the first two years are usually necessary if one is to become sufficiently expert to appreciate fully the literature of the language. In the judgment of the Committee it is not likely that an adequate number of students would select courses in any one of the Slavonic Languages to justify such a program. Experience has shown that students of foreign descent rarely select for study at the University the languages of their forefathers. T h u s it is rather unusual for a boy or a girl of Italian descent to take courses in the Italian Language or Literature. This is unfortunate inasmuch as such students, because of their background and knowledge of the fundamentals of the language, could probably acquire the greatest proficiency in its use. In the case of the Slavonic Languages it is likely that a similar condition would exist. Indeed, the enrollment probably would consist of a small group of students who, in certain branches of science, might find one of the Slavonic Languages of greater value in his specialty than German, French, Italian, or Spanish. As far as we have been able to ascertain, the only universities in which a course in one of the Slavonic Languages is offered at the present time are California, Chicago, Columbia, H a r v a r d , and Michigan. T h e Registrar has communicated with each of these institutions in order to secure data concerning the enrollment in their courses. These data will be forwarded to you as soon as they become available to us. Special attention should be called to the fact that courses in Russian are offered at the University of Chicago, and are thus readily available to a large number of citizens of the State who are of Slavonic descent.