Langer Denies Popularity Decline of Slavic Studies

Government investigations and public opinion have affected enrollment in neither the Russian Research Center nor in undergraduate Slavic Language and History courses, two University Russian experts said yesterday.

Contradicting a survey in the New York Times, William L. Langer '15, Coolidge Professor of History and head of the Research Center, said that the University had not followed the national trend which indicates that 35 percent fewer students in American universities are studying Slavic languages in 1954 than in 1950.

The New York Times claimed that the University's Russian Research Center had shown a noticeable decrease in enrollment during the last three years. Langer, however, said that the Center had undergone no decline in recent years. "We have 20 students in the Center, studying all phases of Russian life, and that's as many as we can handle," he added.

Undergraduate Enrollment Stable

Michael Karpovich, professor of History, said that apart from the Research Center, enrollment in the various Slavic courses open to undergraduates had also remained stable since the war.

The New York paper cited individual students' fear of government investigations and popular reaction for the national decline in this field. Karpovich took issue with the report, saying "There is no public opinion against Russian studies in this area."

More Students Needed

The news dispatch said that only 5,000 of the 2,500,000 people in the nation's universities were taking Slavic language courses. Karpovich agreed with other noted Russian scholars throughout the country in his emphasis of the need for more Americans to study Russian.

Unlike the Research Center, which is operating at capacity, Karpovich said there is room for a great many more students than are presently enrolled in the University's Slavic courses. "We would welcome more students, and we feel that more of them should apply, since the field is of such national importance," he explained.

Both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Administration, the Times pointed out, are interested in staffing their bureaus with students who have a knowledge of the Russian language and the customs of the country. Furthermore, most of our scientists are seriously handicapped by not being able to read the reports of scientific work that is being done in Russia.

Russian experts agree that the United States has placed itself at a great disadvantage to its rival by its popular resentment towards students concentrating in the field of Slavic culture. The report cited President Pusey's statement," The more Americans know about the Soviet Union and the Slavic countries, the better prepared we shall be as a nation to face the power situation in which we find ourselves," today as indicative of the growing concern among American educators.