To Whom It May Concern,

In the light of the recent denial of tenure to Professor Sanders, we – the Williams College Language Club on behalf of the undersigned – feel the need to raise the following points in support of the continuation of a Linguistics Program on campus.

While we acknowledge the difficulties which the current financial crisis presents to the College, we feel that the costs of losing a Linguistics Program far outweigh the cost-saving benefits which cutting such a program would provide.

The benefits that come with a healthy Linguistics Program are many, and accrue even to students not taking Linguistics classes. Without a Linguistics Program, the study of languages at Williams takes a great blow, as Linguistics provides a framework for the analysis of language itself, without which languages exist in a vacuum. But Linguistics is also central in disciplines such as Psychology, Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and even Mathematics. Linguistics is also an established academic field in its own right, a field which helps many in the development of a successful career. Linguistics applies Division III logic and reasoning to disciplines considered in the domain of Divisions I and II. As a Liberal Arts college committed to providing students with a holistic education, Williams’ curriculum would suffer greatly from the loss of such an interdisciplinary program.

As a Liberal Arts college competing for students who are also applying to other Liberal Arts schools, Williams needs to remain competitive in order to continue to attract the talented and diverse student body it currently boasts. Linguistics is an integral part of being a complete liberal-arts institution. Schools such as Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr boast entire departments devoted to Linguistics, which not only gives them a recruitment edge, but also supports their extensive foreign languages and literatures program. As proud Williams students, we wish to see our institution leading its peers in all fields, not falling into the middle of the pack.

According to Professor Nathan Sanders, roughly 5 – 10% of all Williams students take Linguistics classes over the course of their careers. This amounts to at least 25 – 50 students per class year, or at least 100 – 200 students on campus at any given time. This critical mass provides a strong answer to those who might argue that because of the small number of Linguistics Majors over the years,[1] the program has little relevance for the student body as a whole. As previously stated, a grounding in Linguistics can be useful for students of all disciplines, regardless of how many choose to major in the subject.

In the light of the aforementioned points, we propose the following. To secure the future of Linguistics, we propose two basic options. In our best-case scenario, a visiting professor would be hired for the coming year to teach Linguistics 100 and at least one other course.[2] We recognize the difficulties of the current situation, and so we propose another option, modeled on the Critical Languages program, in which a Professor is connected with interested students who learn via virtual classrooms. We feel that interest in the Linguistics program is more than enough to justify temporarily integrating Linguistics into this existing rubric. We look forward to working with the administration to establish creative solutions which take into account both the College’s needs and students’ academic passions.

Sincerely,

The Williams College Language Club, on behalf of: