Tufts' commitment to foreign language studies has met with some trouble in recent years as a result of students' unbalanced interest in the various language offerings.
The Spanish department in particular has had staffing problems as the number of students interested in learning Spanish has grown faster than the department's teaching staff. Vida Johnson, the chair of the German, Russian, and Asian Languages Department, said there is a national high school trend to emphasize Spanish over other languages.
"We're trying very hard to buck the trend of students only going to Spanish," Johnson said. "German and Russian have lost enrollment over the past few years, while [other] enrollments have basically held steady."
Administrators say they are making an effort to enhance their resources. To identify areas of possible improvement, Tufts employed an outside consulting committee. The review of the Department of Romance Languages, which took place last year, was sponsored by Dean of Arts and Humanities Leila Fawaz and was undertaken by professors from Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton.
"The dean believes in external reviews, and she's been encouraging lots of departments to do them," Romance Language Department Chair Isabelle Naginski said. "This is part of an ongoing evaluation process on the part of the University."
The final report identified a number of areas in which the department could be strengthened, prime among was Spanish instruction.
"This discipline constitutes a gaping hole in the department and is underrepresented University wide.... Tufts has not met its responsibility to the Latino community," the committee found.
The report recommended converting all or part of the 23 part-time Spanish faculty to full-time, increasing Latin American studies offerings, and adding more course administrator positions to assist with curriculum development. Other recommendations included adding Portuguese to the curriculum and creating an Italian major to compliment the minor that Tufts currently offers.
Because most liberal arts students take one or more foreign language classes, the Romance Language Department must work to keep up with shifting demands.
Naginski said her department hopes to meet all of the committee's recommendations and has continually made requests to fill needed positions, but her efforts have been stifled by budget limitations.
"We just can't do everything we'd like to; we need more staff," she said.
The department, however, was able to get approval to hire two new professors, and is in the process of negotiating with a candidate to teach Latin American culture classes, with an emphasis on Mexican literature and culture. Those involved see the tenure-track position as a significant step towards improving the quality of the Spanish program at Tufts.
Though excited about that Tufts is filling the position, leaders of the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS) have questioned the candidates' qualifications. In an e-mail released to the Tufts community, ALAS treasurer Carlos Lenz alleged that the department passed over better-qualified Latino professors in their selection process.
The candidate "is a North American professor who has been to Latin America once, only once, and is not qualified in that regard to teach a class on Latino culture," Lenz's wrote.
But Naginski and deputy-chair Teresa Howe deny Lenz' allegations. "We wouldn't be interested in hiring this person if she wasn't very well qualified to teach Latin-American culture," Howe said, adding that the position requires a PhD and native or near-native Spanish speaking ability.
Howe refused to elaborate further, saying that the negotiations are confidential and that she must respect the privacy of the candidates. Each of the prospective professors were invited to Tufts to speak with students and deliver a lecture. Fawaz and the University's affirmative action office also monitored the search and evaluated the final candidates.
But ALAS remains skeptical. The group met with Fawaz last Monday and will meet with the vice president of arts, sciences, and engineering, Mel Bernstein, next Monday. Citing past incidences when professors who taught culture classes allegedly lacked sufficient expertise, the president of ALAS, Gabriella Blanco, said she wants to ensure a good candidate is chosen.
"We were so excited about the position, and we fear that the person they'll hire won't have such a good understanding of Latino culture," Blanco said.
The department is also working with the administration to convert more of its part-time faculty to full-time status. The move would increase professors' access to students, while allowing the department to broaden its course offerings.
"In most universities, language courses are taught by grad students or teaching assistants," Howe said. "We have experienced people teaching all our classes; all have masters degrees, and some have PhDs."
Though listing many possible improvements, the report was largely complementary. "These recommendations are made in a positive spirit of wishing to strengthen an already respectable and generally effective operation," the committee wrote.
Johnson said she is comfortable with the status of her department.
"We pride ourselves on our programs, where you can take small classes and get a real opportunity to work one-on-one with facility in a classroom setting," she said. Nevertheless, her department is taking steps to improve.
"We're working on revising our teaching materials, and utilizing the most up-to-date technology," she said.
"We need more money to create some positions. We'd like to start a masters of Japanese class, and we need money for faculty development. Overall, our budget is pretty lean," she said.
Liberal Arts students are required to take six semesters of foreign language and culture classes, which sets the University apart from other benchmark institutions. Dartmouth College requires its students to take three ten-week long classes, with culture considered an integral part of the program. Students can test out of the requirement with a four or five on the Advanced Placement exam.
