Commentary
Arabic language program
deserves more consideration
Despite the obvious benefits of
knowing and understanding Arabic,
universities across the United States
have not
GUEST enough to
address the
knowledge
gap in our
country
when it comes to Arabic and the Is
lamic World. Arabic is the liturgical
language of one billion Muslims
worldwide, and 300 million others
speak a dialect of Arabic in their daily
lives. In 1968 the number of students
who registered for Arabic classes in
the United States represented only 0.1
percent of all students who registered
for one of the 14 most commonly
taught foreign languages. Thirty years
later, it had only grown to 0.5 percent
(http://www.adfl.org).
Here in Eugene, there have been
wonderful first steps, such as the much
publicized hiring of Dr. Timothy Gian
otti in the Religious Studies program.
There are also rumors about the cre
ation of a minor in Middle Eastern
Studies. However, there has been very
little dialogue about starting an Arabic
language program. Why?
Portland State University has had an
Arabic program for decades. Oregon
COMMENTARY
State apparently started a program last
year. Having a legitimate Arabic pro
gram here would boost the school's
notoriety by placing it into a small
group of schools nationwide that offer
Arabic. This would also impact the
number of students who want to at
tend school here.
In the class schedule for this term
you can find Danish (eight students),
Finnish (two students), Greek (17 stu
dents), Norwegian (14 students) and
Swedish (seven students). Is Arabic
not as important as these languages?
Each term, my students ask why Ara
bic has not become a more promi
nent language program here. Why not
start a program and have the credits
count toward a Bachelor's of Arts lan
guage requirement? Despite its rela
tive obscurity, the number of students
who take the Pass/No Pass self-study
course each term has hovered around
20 for the last couple of years. The de
mand is there, so where's the supply?
If funding is the main issue, can an
Arabic class, with sufficient enroll
ments, not be able to sustain itself?
Given the obvious demand for a
course that carries no applicable cred
its and satisfies no requirements, it's
logical to predict significantly larger
demand if these ad hoc courses were
a part of a regular language program.
We are in the midst of a geopoliti
cal reality where understanding Ara
bic, or not, has serious impacts on
what we are doing. For example, in
surgents in Iraq will occasionally write
warnings on the roads where they've
planted bombs to blow our soldiers
up. Unfortunately, they don't write it
in English and our troops diligently
drive past and encounter a burst of
shrapnel traveling around 700 mph.
What's worse is that many of the peo
ple writing the policies that place peo
ple in these scenarios are also igno
rant of the languages and cultures of
the areas they're meddling with. This
has led to a whole variety of things
blowing up in our faces.
We need to take a more serious
look at establishing a program that
will produce people who are aware of
what the Middle East is like and who
can effectively communicate with the
people there who are receiving as
skewed a version of our culture as we
do of theirs. We need to follow in
Frost's footsteps, taking the road less
traveled by, and that will make all the
difference. Alaysa Kathalik?
Chris Holman, a senior majoring
in geography and international studies,
teaches Arabic in the Self-Study
Language program.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letter is a personal attack
devoid of clear argument
It astounds me what drivel people
will try to pass off as public discourse.
The vitriolic letter's ("Protest that
which really kills," ODE, Feb. 11)
most profound element was its ability
to raise more problems in 250 words
than I can list. The letter was riddled
with fallacies. She simply made fun of
Jacqueline (ad hominem), which
points only to her lack of creativity, ci
vility and intellectual prowess, or per
haps her promising future as a school
yard bully.
On abortion, she said Jacqueline
should defend people who are actual
ly alive (which begs the question).
There were multiple unwarranted log
ical jumps — Jacqueline must have
prayed for them, that must be hypo
critical, people who light candles for
fetuses haven't made tough choices
(including abortions), abstinence
programs are lunacy (mere name-call
ing). Furthermore, her intolerant
words show no room for diversity,
nor any grasp of the ambiguities in
herent in such controversial issues.
How are these platitudes any differ
ent than Texas fundamentalism? Also,
she ironically fails to realize that em
bodying such a violent interpersonal
stance is clearly hypocritical — her ap
proach is frequently at the root of op
pression and war.
To mock a person's deeply held re
ligious conviction is asinine, to pro
vide no argument is ignorant and to
make fun of a person's intolerance in
a way that is, ironically, so deeply
hateful lands somewhere between
nauseating, entertaining and embar
rassing. As an academic and a consci
entious objector I am embarrassed to
be associated with such unproductive
and mean-spirited words. Consider
engaging ideas, not undeverly bash
ing people.
Ron Davis
educational leadership
Affirmative action
aids universities
in diversity-building
Travis Willses recent column
("Crossing the racial line," ODE, Feb.
20) adds yet another boring critique
to a unoriginal drone of commentary
on affirmative action. The compari
son Willse draws to University of
Michigan's "extinct" affirmative action
admission policies makes no sense.
Perhaps a re-reading of Gratz v.
Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger
(which, rather than merely allowing
"certain biases toward some minority
students," allow race to be a impor
tant plus in admissions decisions)
would be in order. It seems that affir
mative action is alive and well in uni
versity admissions.
While Willse says diversity-build
ing scholarships "can't fairly make
the same claim" as admissions poli
cies geared toward increasing diver
sity, it seems as though these schol
arships serve that exact same
function. The Michigan cases in no
way made diversity-building schol
arships unconstitutional. Willse
also says these scholarships "deny
opportunities to people ... based
on characteristics unrelated to
those opportunities." Perhaps he
should actually take a look at some
of the criteria for many other schol
arships. They can include not only
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versity students.
Jackie Prange
senior
biology, political science
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