S.A. Lends Support To Dutch, Swedish Language Programs

The Student Assembly demonstrated its opposition to the administration’s decision to eliminate Cornell’s Dutch and Swedish programs by passing Resolution 25 last week in support of maintaining both of these language programs. The University decided to fold both the Dutch and Swedish programs last April in the face of mounting budget constraints.

The original resolution contained a recommendation that the College of Arts and Sciences should seek alternate funding sources to avoid eliminating either language. After 430 students had signed a petition against the elimination of the progams, the S.A. was prompted to compose a resolution stating its position against the the Department of German Studies’ decision to eliminate the language programs. Additionally, a sense of body action stating that, “… the S.A. will consider financially assisting these language programs if necessary” was eventually left out of the final wording of the resolution.

However, after debating the matter, assembly members opted to amend the legislation so that, as President Rammy Salem ’10, one of the resolution’s five sponsors, explained, “In the [version that] passed, [the S.A.] decided to amend the resolution by removing the last clause, which was probably the most important.”

Although the amendment galvanized enough support for Resolution 25 to pass, without the final Sense of the Body clause regarding the S.A.’s possible financial assistance, the version of the resolution that passed solely contained the Recommendation to University administration. “Right now [the resolution] is only an expression of an opinion but it’s not actually having any substantive effect,” Salem said.

LGBTQ Representative at-large Matt Danzer ’12, another sponsor of the resolution, was more upbeat about the outcome. “As far as the S.A. funding [of the Dutch and Swedish programs] was concerned, the bigger issue was just letting the University know where the S.A. stands on the issue. Funding … is definitiely an issue we’ll be looking into again, but the bigger thing we wanted to get done with the resolution was to put our support behind [the programs].”

Danzer offered his explanation as to why the S.A. ultimately opposed the inclusion of any clause promising financial consideration. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I do know that some people were concerned that if we set a precedent here the administration would see this as a sign that the S.A. would step in wherever they weren’t willing to. A number of reps didn’t want to set that kind of precedent [with] the administration,” he said.

Salem was similarly understanding. “I didn’t think [the final clause] would be too much of a problem because all it said was we would consider [financial support]. It wasn’t mandating or setting anything in stone,” Salem said. “But I do think people brought up a valid point [when they asked] why [we would fund] this as opposed to anything else.”

For some students, like Johanna Zussman-Dobbins ’13, the elimination of the Dutch and Swedish programs is the one cut that will most affect her life as a Cornell student. Zussman-Dobbins, who spent a year abroad in Sweden after high school, based her decision to attend Cornell largely on the existence of its Swedish program. She explained: “I looked at some smaller schools but none of them had Swedish and Cornell did.”

Zussman-Dobbins, who is currently taking her third semester of Swedish, voiced the need to support the Swedish and Dutch programs. “I had a really good experience in the intro class last year and it’s a small, sort of quirky community within the larger Cornell community. But it’s a lot of fun and probably one of my favorite classes at Cornell,” she said.

Zussman-Dobbins continued: “Whenever I hear people say [that] Cornell offers any study for any person [I think] since they’re cutting the Swedish program, it’s more like any study but Swedish or Dutch,” she said.

“It’s sad to see them cut Swedish when they still have Swedish massage,” Zussman-Dobbins concluded.