Spring Break
Mourning for upcoming language loss
Students protest budget cuts, impending loss of Italian in foreign language department
Daniel Acee
Issue date: 5/30/08 Section: News
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Students and faculty gathered to promote awareness of the budget cuts currently taking place in the foreign languages and literatures department by carrying signs saying things such as "Viva La Lingua" (long live the language). A coffin was carried around to represent the impending "death" of Italian instruction at OSU.
Italian is on track to be completely eliminated in the next few years with the recent cut of first year Italian courses.
To honor the significance of first-year Italian, Christopher Baldridge, an FLL instructor and creator of OSU's Italian program, organized the funeral procession that traveled through highly trafficked areas on campus.
The event began in front of Kidder Hall, where students, faculty and staff came to participate in the funeral and listen to the eulogy.
Baldridge gave the eulogy, in which he reminisced of the year he started the Italian program and how far the program and the students have come as "a family."
Three members of Baldridge's very first Italian class came to support him and his cause.
Many other students came to support the cause and share their insights on the budget cut situation. They expressed great praise and respect for Baldridge's work as an Italian instructor and as a friend.
Nathan Kondrat, an Italian student majoring in music, intended on staying at OSU for a full fifth year to study Italian. Now he has no reason to do so and plans on graduating in the fall of 2008.
"I study opera, mainly, and in the world of opera music Italian is so important," Kondrat said. "Without Italian, it lessens the credibility of OSU."
After the funeral began at Kidder Hall, it proceeded to Gilkey hall, home of the College of Liberal Arts.
From there, mourners moved to the MU, Reser Stadium, Weatherford Hall and finally concluded their march at the Kerr Administration Building.
The 40 members remaining from the original 150 in the procession met with OSU's provost and executive vice president, Sabah Randhawa, at Kerr to discuss matters involved in the FLL budget cuts.
"The group was really pumped when we got to Kerr," Baldridge said. "The shouts of 'Two, four, six, eight, we want language at Oregon State' had people feeling like they are contributing to something very important."
Alfonso Jimenez, a junior in biology, learned about the funeral from a Facebook group his friends taking language courses invited him to join.
Jimenez came to support his friends in language classes and voice his own opinions.
"I believe that cutting the budget for languages is a threat to diversity everywhere, because as the world ages, as time goes on, it becomes a more diverse world," Jiminez said. "We're going to need more languages if we want to compete in this global economy."
Jiminez also stated that he would like to see more campus events with a "real cause."
To Baldridge, the event's success was made evident by the large number of participants in the funeral who showed support and put their petitions in the coffin.
"I am not the only one involved in this effort. Armelle Hofer [an OSU French instructor] and students in my Italian courses should be equally credited for standing up for Italian," Baldridge said.
"It was indeed the greatest thing I've ever seen and been involved in at Oregon State University."
Daniel Acee, senior reporter
news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231
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