Despite October’s “jazz funeral,” that mourned state cuts to higher education, tensions over the lost jobs of the “foreign language 14” are alive and kicking as many of the fired instructors clean their offices in anticipation of their final days at the University.
 
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures had to cut $700,000, 14 full-time instructors and one part-time instructor to accommodate next year’s budget cuts, according to department chair Emily Batinski.
 
The department had to cut the Japanese, Swahili, Portuguese and Russian programs entirely. Instructors were also terminated from German, Italian and the classics, which include Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
 
Many of the instructors’ employment will end as of January 2011, Batinski said.
 
“I was told the department had to reduce its budget by $700,000, and the only place that kind of money can come from is from faculty. And so I knew we were going to be losing a number of staff,” Batinski said.
 
However, Batinski said she was never told why the cuts had to come from her department and still does not understand the administrative incentive behind it.
 
The University sent out about 240 letters warning of layoffs in February. Of the 240 sent, only these 14 were enforced.
 
Beginning in October, the American Association of University Professors began addressing letters to Chancellor Michael Martin, asking for the reinstatement of the 14 foreign language instructors who are losing their jobs at the end of this semester.
 
The AAUP argued that the instructors, most of whom have been at the University for more than seven years, should have received more advanced notice that their contracts would not be renewed.
 
“We urge you to rescind the notices of termination issued to the fourteen language instructors,” AAUP Associate Secretary B. Robert Kreiser wrote in the letter. “If, however, the notices are allowed to stand, we urge that their effective date be extended to the end of the current academic year.”
 
University Vice Chancellor for Human Resources A.G. Monaco replied to this letter on Nov. 18, stating, “LSU has complied with all applicable state laws and regulations, and it has fully met with its obligations in regard to notification as required under the employment agreements.”
 
The 14 instructors who received termination letters also pursued answers regarding their situation throughout the semester.
 
Members of the foreign language 14 confronted Martin on Sept. 30 about the process leading to the elimination of four foreign languages.
 
The 14 appealed to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Interim Dean Gaines Foster, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Jane Cassidy and Martin.
 
After what Greek, Latin, German and classical studies instructor Johanna Sandrock called “finger-pointing” between Foster and Martin, she told The Daily Reveille on Oct. 1 she was disappointed in the message the University was sending the world — that “foreign languages are expendable.”
 
Sandrock said she still was not satisfied after the meeting.
 
“To me there really is no responsibility,” Sandrock said. “We really need to know who is making this decision.”
 
Two of the 14 instructors will continue to teach classes in the spring.
 
Portuguese instructor Vera Lazarre will continue to be a full-time Spanish instructor at the University Lab School.
 
Russian instructor Jean Rutherford told The Daily Reveille on Nov. 11 that she planned to teach a Russian course for free in the spring for a handful of students needing one more semester to complete their Russian minor.
 
However, Batinski said Rutherford had to obtain a grant to be allowed to continue to teach.
“The University would not allow someone to teach for free,” Batinksi said.
 
Despite chances of an instructor being hired for the spring semester at another University appearing dim, Latin instructor Ann Ostrom of the foreign language 14  found work to replace her lost job.
 
“Fortunately for me, a Latin teacher at a local private school had to leave his position for personal reasons, so I am starting there in January,” Ostrom said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille.
 
Batinksi said the department is waiting to see how the terminations will affect students.
 
“Right now, it looks as though the major concern hasn’t materialized, and the major concern is that students would not be able to take courses to complete their language requirement [with the firing of these instructors], but that problem may develop or become evident in the next semester or two.” Batinski said. “Sometimes there is a delay.”
 
 
 
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Contact Julian Tate at [email protected]