University of Virginia Library

Real Loss

It is time now to abolish
this anachronism and inequity.
This semester should be the
last for the enforced subsidy of
language professors. If the
language departments can not
stand on their own, let them
fall. We will all observe a
moment of silence if they do,
for it would be a real loss.

But there is no reason they
will have to collapse. If the
arrogant people whose jobs live
on borrowed time with
university protection will
improve their attitude, and the
real scholars in the

I just can't seem to get the hang
of this thing

departments will improve their
product, people might enjoy
studying with them. But
students deserve a choice.
There is no excuse for talented
people to be wasted because
they can not pass French or
Spanish. Every aspiring
architect or doctor who gives
up or is forced to give up his
goal because he failed a foreign
language should weigh heavily
on the composite conscience of
the language departments.

As Voltaire would have
said, "Ecrasez l'infame!"