Always eager to follow trends, the University of Toledo has announced that it is suspending admission to its French and German majors, and to MA and MAE programs in French, German, and Spanish, along with other programs across the university. While admitting that overall, these program suspensions will likely not result in any substantial savings, the administration argues that suspensions of low-enrolled programs will allow the university to reallocate the meager resources in French and German to other areas of potential growth.

Why are students at our public university losing opportunities to distinguish themselves on the job market in a global economy? Why are our students not worthy of a broad liberal arts education that offers more than one language major in Spanish? Additionally, any major program of study is only enhanced by a second major in a language, including French and German.

To those who say that higher education’s curriculum should be driven by workforce needs and student interest, we reply that workforce needs change regularly and frequently. Today’s needed program is the one we suspend tomorrow. Ironically, other programs on the current prioritization list were previously created in response to changes in workforce needs.

And speaking of workforce needs, the U.S. has a national shortage of language teachers. Surely that counts as a workforce need.

Furthermore, since many high school budgets face similar constraints, they often choose to reduce or cut their language courses. The result is that fewer students come to college with previous foreign language study or an understanding of the importance of foreign language skills. And the more colleges cut language programs, the more high schools will cut their programs because languages are not “needed” for college.

If you are concerned about the University of Toledo suspending its French and German majors, please sign our petition and show the administration how many people support a diversity of foreign language majors.

You can also listen to Dr. Claire-Marie Brisson's The North American Francophone Podcast, Feb. 29, 2024 about these program suspensions at thefrancophone.com. She interviewed Dr. Linda Rouillard and Dr. Ruth Hottell. See also census.gov