The Russian Club at the University of Alabama is petitioning for an additional faculty member for the Russian program.
President of the Russian Club Zach Golden and Jonathan Williams are the authors and contributors to the petition directed at UA President Robert Witt.
“It is my earnest opinion that the expansion of the department, if only by one Russian language faculty member, would reflect well on the University, improve the stability of the program, help to satisfy the needs of its students and would work to give students necessary skills for future careers in government and private sectors,” Williams said in the petition. According to Williams, the club expects to present the proposal to Witt in a matter of weeks.
The petition asks for Witt’s support in expanding the Russian department, claiming there are not enough faculty to fulfill the demands and needs of students, including the basic language courses of Russian.
“Culture, conversation and literature are needed to fully understand a language and its people,” the petition stated. “Therefore, the current program does not, and cannot, fulfill the needs of a student looking to master Russian in hopes of using it in a future career.”
The academic catalog lists 24 classes, but only six of those are offered due to the lack of faculty. Currently, the department has one faculty member, Andrew Drozd.
“The hiring of just one additional instructor would make a huge difference in the amount of classes available to the students,” Drozd said. “For one thing, it would allow us to offer at least two sections of first-year Russian which should help to accommodate the demand for the course.”
The 18 classes left out would contribute to a broader Russian education, Golden said.
According to Drozd, it is impossible to meet the demands of students with only one faculty member. Due to increased student demand, Drozd will teach the Russian literature sequence in the spring in lieu of Russian 101.
Golden said he believes there are about 50 students currently in the program, but many are turned away each semester, including freshmen.
“If we had more faculty, more people could take Russian,” Golden said.
According to class listings on myBama, this semester Drozd is teaching Elementary Russian II, Intermediate Russian II and Advanced Russian Grammar Composition II. However, none of the classes are filled to capacity.
The demand for Russian language classes has increased and now exceeds the capabilities of the department, according to Michael Picony, interim chair for the Department of Modern Languages & Classics. The demand increase is due to the United States Department of Defense declaring Russian as a strategic language, he said.
According to the petition, people who are skilled in the Russian language are more susceptible for bonuses and incentives for their skills. The petition also listed employers who are seeking people with a background in the language including General Motors, NASA, the FBI, Microsoft and AT&T.
