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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1975)
— CSPA faculty papers go into library By SHAWN ROSSITER Of the Emerald CSPA faculty members have been advised to place their correspondence, research papers, course information, grant proposals, collaborative work with other professors or col leges, and other documents in the CSPA archives collection. Located in the University Library, the archives how hold a set of CSPA files including many documents legally owned by the University. CSPA faculty persons are responsible for turning over all documents five years old or older to the University archives under a special arrangement enacted by the Oregon Legislature. For more information concerning what kind of material should be contributed to the archives, contact Rosemary Boss at extension 3825. KWAX extends hours Radio station KWAX-FM, located in Villard Hall, extended its broadcast hours Saturday. The program ‘A Tempo” comes on the air at 8 a.m. Saturday, featuring “good music and a minimum of talk," according to John Shepherd, Division of Broadcast Services head. The Saturday schedule previously started at 10 am. This increase of hours is significant since it means the station has reached the highest level of performance as out lined by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and will entitle the station to a larger monetary grant from the corporation. Currently, KWAX, at 91.1, is a Level-ll station. The extras weekend hours and hiring of an additional staff member de termined a Level-Ill title — a total of 18 hours of air time each day, seven days a week. Maintaining a Level-Ill operation entitles the station to an increase in their grant, nearly doubling the amount they receive now. Though the program “A Tempo” features mostly music, Shepherd said announcements regarding events relating to arts in the community are also included. Persons in the area who would like to have announcements aired on the program can do so by calling Karen Kammerer at 686-4236 or deliver ing a copy to her at the station. This service is free of charge. Internships in New York The New York City Urban Fellowship Program is offering internships in New York City government in a variety of areas from September through June to University seniors and graduate students in all fields. Interns will be awarded $4,000 plus a $500 stipend from sponsoring institutions, tuition waiver or academic credit. For information and applications, contact the University financial aid or career counseling office or write Leonore Loft, New York City Urban Fellowship, 51 Chambers St. Room 811, New York, N.Y. 10007. Romance language dept. also hit hard by inflation By GEORGE WILLIAMS Of the Emerald Editors note: This is ths 29th in the Emerald's series on the fi nancial state of the University. The situation in the Department of Romance Languages offers no consolation to the financial state of the University. Like almost all other areas it, too is definitely suf fering from a lack of funds and is being forced to cut back on tele phone use, paper consumption and Xeroxing. Understaffing and crowded class conditions are the rnost pressing problems. "One of the most serious ettecis is the inevitable increase in the size of the sections,” said Perry Powers, department head. Class sizes have increased in both the lower and upper division courses. Many of the professors used to think that 25 students was an ex cessively large class in either the first or second year of language study, but now very few classes have under 30. DratMng by Alfred U "Last term one Spanish section had 42 members," Powers said. "How much contact can you have when dasses are running 35 to 40 students? It’s frustrating from both the student and teacher stand points.” The frustration stems from the fact that the study of a language requires a close relationship and an informal approach between the student and teacher. Class evalu ations from past students listed a need for more classroom conver sation, said Powers. “Learning a language can’t be a lecture setting," said Richard Des roches, associate professor. "But right now there is little chance for conversation in the classes." Desroches, who teaches a French composition class, feels students should be writing more. With the larger classes, however, many staff members are unable to find the extra time it would take to oorrect more papers. Problems with size Randi Bim, associate profes sor, explained that problems in votved with teaching literature in a foreign language are hard enough as is, but are compounded in large classes. "The ideal would be 15 to 18 students per class," she said. Two aspects have created overcrowded conditions—a drop in the number of faculty and an increase in enrollment. The ro mance language department covers study in French, Spanish and Italian, and of those three only French seems to be holding its own. According to Thomas Hart, ro mance language professor, Italian studies has lost one of its three professors, and Spanish has lost two of its six in the last year. Right now the department has em ployed one full-time visiting pro fessor in Italian and one half-time visiting professor in Spanish. "Although we would like to re tain them next year and raise the half-time position to a full-time one, we can’t be sure that we can,” said Powers. The University is the only school in the state that gives a doctorate degree in romance lan guages, said Powers, but staffing problems are hurting the program. Steven Rendall, associate pro fessor, feels the graduate prog ram is "really badly hurt,” espe cially in Spanish. “The range of classes is limitea throughout the department,” Re ndall said. "It really threatens the entire program, and some people have questioned whether or not we can even continue the prog ram in the Spanish graduate area.” Enrollment up Enrollment has shown an in crease over last year and has con tinued on into winter term with out its usual drop. This trend, said Powers, is showing a returning in terest in the study of romance lan guages. The University, however, has made it very difficult to plan the number of sections that can be offered. It does not have sufficient funds to cover all the sections, said Powers, and negotiations for new ones must take place on the floor of Mac Court at the time of registration. “By that time we really don’t have the graduate teaching fel lows (GTF’s) available," he said. “GTFs are doing much of the first year instruction, and its hard to get the best ones when funds are not available in the spring.” “We must adapt ourselves each time there is an enrollment,” said Elisabeth Marlow, assistant pro fessor. “We always must wonder if there will be enough money for the next section." "Money that is given in the fall is taken back at the end of the term, and we have to fight for it all over again,” said Desroches. “Right now there are three sections in French composition class and we need four.” One professor said the depart ment was given some funds last spring, but still not anywhere near enough to handle the recruiting of GTF’s. Supplies, services cut Added to this problem are an inadequate supplies and services budget and the possibility of still further cuts. The results could mean the removal of telephones from more offices and even grea ter limits on Xeroxing and mailing. Cutbacks in the use of such teach ing aids as films and reprints are also hurting the amount of expos ure students receive to different aspects of learning a language. The department lacks office space, and no money or space is available for a badly needed stu dent lounge, said one professor. Classroom space is also terribly inadequate. “I’ve taught in some classrooms that should be used as broom closets at best,” said Rendail. Bim, who also handles library requisitions, termed the situation “pretty grim." Book allotments have been cut by a few thousand dollars, and the department is be hind schedule in getting the books it needs. The department also has special problem and extra costs of having to go to European markets for books, said Bim. “We've just about run out of money for the year,” she added. The romance languages de partment has an excellent poten tial for growth and expansion, but isn’t going anywhere at present. “We have a good faculty and we could start building a strong de partment,” said Bim. "But tem porary appointments are hurting morale. First rate people can’t be given assurance that they can be rehired next year." With an increasing enrollment, however, cutbacks would be “highly detrimental," said Powers. He explained that it would be “shortsighted” to do away with studies that focus on other peo ples, cultures and literatures. “Enrollment indicates a heal thy student interest in this field,” he said. “The interest should be encouraged, rather than trun cated." The overall financial effect "cannot help but represent a re duction in the degree of educa tion." said Powers. "We are doing less now then we were able to do three to four years ago, and there are no encouraging signs on the horizon.” But even through all this feels that the instructors and students are showing a "remarkably cooperative spirit." “I consider these problems as part of my job, ” said Marlow. “Hav ing to adapt to a problem is not the end of the world." _
