As students plan their schedules with the newly released spring 2011 semester course offerings, they may notice changes to class sizes and availability.
The most noticeable changes are in foreign language sections, where many departments are offering fewer courses or none at all.
No courses in Portuguese, Japanese or Swahili will be offered this spring.
Emily Batinski, chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, said there is hope for the languages to be restored to campus, but no one is sure when.
“Some people are hopeful for the possibility of Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Swahili’s return to campus,” Batinski said. “But given the current news about future budget cuts, no one has been able to address this more concretely.”
Other languages will offer a smaller variety of classes.
“There will be far fewer classical studies courses in translation that also carry ‘gen ed’ credit,”       Batinski said.
Italian 1001 and German 1001 classes will not be offered in the spring, meaning students will be unable to begin their sequences next semester.
“Next fall, we will offer the first course and not the second, meaning students will be unable to move as readily through their sequences,” Batinski said.
Students pursuing minors in certain languages will also be affected as fewer upper level language courses will be offered.
“Italian will also be affected because they won’t be able to offer some upper division classes,” Batinski said. “They will offer some, but they will be cut back.”
Course offerings in all departments vary each semester for a number reasons, according to University Registrar Robert Doolos.
“It could be budgetary restrictions, faculty availability or any variety of reasons,” Doolos said. “Adjustments are made every semester.”
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Contact Grace Montgomery at [email protected]