An Opportunity for Growth: Modern Languages and the World Languages Education Programs

Roman Kavanagh

Opinions Editor

What are the best things about RIC? Some might say the Hope Scholarship, and its affordability in comparison to other institutions. Others, the professors and their brilliant, vibrant passion for learning. The truth is, there are a myriad of things which we advertise and celebrate about our community. What I think really makes us stand out, however, is our diversity. According to our website, RIC is the only “Hispanic Serving (HSI) and Minority Serving (MSI) Four-Year Comprehensive Institution in Rhode Island.” One of the ways in which our school best reflects this promise has been through our language programs. 

As we all know, last week a list of 20 majors came out which were to be suspended, in a document titled “P&E Final Report.” Among these were the Modern Languages BA’s in Francophone Studies, French, Latin American Studies and Portuguese, as well as the World Languages BA’s in French and Portuguese. Friday, May 25, I met with Dr. David Ramirez, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Dr. Erin Papa, Director of the World Languages Education Programs. What followed was an incredibly hopeful conversation on how we as a school community might move forward from these prospective cuts, and instead work to turn this into an opportunity to revitalize our programs to be greater than before.

Photo by Sam Gervais

This article is one in a series in which I interviewed RIC professors from departments and programs that have been affected by the P&E cuts. At this time, President Jack Warner has failed to respond to my requests for an interview.

“Languages have been a key element of the curriculum of this college almost from its inception,” said Dr. David Ramirez, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages. “The Latin American Studies program was created in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. For languages such as French, you can see traces of them in the RIC records stretching back all the way into the 1940s. Since its inception, the language programs have served countless students from various backgrounds. What’s more, it has shaped alongside our community, reflecting the cultural makeup of Rhode Island. “The languages we offer are community languages,” Dr. Ramirez told me. “They are very alive in our communities.” What’s more, he said, RIC’s language programs often serve as a way to connect students with their roots. “Many of the students in these classes are heritage language learners. They are in those classes because they want to either preserve, recover or reconnect with their own heritage.”

Both professors were enthusiastic to highlight the prevalence of multilingualism in our communities both on and off of campus. “I don’t think in the entire history of the college we’ve had a campus as  multilingual as the one that we have today,” said Dr. Ramirez. “If there’s a moment in history in which [these programs] are most necessary, most important, most visible in our campus, it is now.” Dr. Papa, Director of the World Languages Education Programs, talked a lot about how the language programs help to build community. “In the education space, providing the world languages education program has really built a community for mostly heritage speakers of these languages.” She went on to outline how the language programs help build towards equity in education. “In terms of representation of the students from RIC, the school of education is overwhelmingly white students still. It’s 27% students of color, when RIC is almost 50% students of color. [World Languages Education] is bringing up the overall average of the school of education because it creates this nice space for multilingual students and students of color to connect with one another.”

By cutting a large portion of the programs that make up the Modern and World Languages programs at RIC, we are diminishing the greatness they lend to our school community and broader image. “We are a Hispanic serving and minority serving institution,” says Dr. Papa. “Which means that we serve a very linguistically diverse group of students. I think that the administration is neglecting the strengths these students bring to campus by cutting these programs. Hispanic or Latino students are not a monolith, they don’t only speak Spanish, so to think that this is the only language program we need counters that.” 

“Beyond the numbers,” Dr. Ramirez continues, we must consider “the intrinsic value of these programs facing the community, even for the students not necessarily taking those courses.” Rhode Island hosts an already multilingual community, especially in and around Providence. To prospective students and parents, knowing that RIC values its diverse population enough to maintain these spaces is an attractive force in of itself. 

A huge focus of the P&E reports was on the extent to which these majors serve the Rhode Island workforce. For language majors, there is no shortage of jobs. “At least 9 out of 10 employers are looking for bilingual employees,” said Dr. Papa. No matter the field you’re going into, “having a language degree opens up your mind to different perspectives, and provides so many different skills which enhance your career.” Being bilingual can translate to better pay at some jobs, and a more wide-reaching influence in others. Dr. Ramirez reflected how much “we need multilingual and bilingual teachers, social workers and nurses.” In fact, he said, “I cannot think of a discipline in which this won’t build on.”

As for the P&E process itself, Dr. Ramirez and Dr. Papa expressed a profound hopefulness for the ways in which their programs might be able to pivot away from flat cuts, and work instead to expand and enhance their reach. My hope still is that we can discuss how to make those programs more vibrant,” said Dr. Ramirez, “to address their challenges, and not just say, yeah, this should go.”  

 “What I was hoping we would see,” said Dr. Papa, “is an opportunity to bring some of what we’ve learned to grow these programs, but also grow those spaces beyond world languages education and into all of the education programs; because we desperately need bilingual teachers across content areas.” In regards to both her and Dr. Ramirez, Dr. Papa said, “We spent a lot of time building upon the relationships we already had with both of our programs, but also the community partners and school districts where we have a flow of students coming in to create pathways for them.” 

This vision shared by Dr. Ramirez and Dr. Papa of expanding and nurturing the language programs is not gone. My hope in conducting these  interviews is that they will serve as a testament to organize the thoughts of our campus community and open up a conversation with our administration to reconsider the finality of these cuts. I firmly believe that the entirety of the RIC community will find a way to come together and address this misguided severance of majors.

Talking to Dr. Ramirez and Dr. Papa was an absolute pleasure. Our conversation revealed to me two professors who absolutely love RIC and love their programs. Their passion inspired me to see through the fear surrounding these suspended majors, and look forward to seeing how we can steer the conversation to be about growth and new opportunities, rather than cuts and closures.