Slavic Studies Head Responds to Complaints

The chairman of the Slavic Languages and Literature Department met for the first time with undergraduate concentrators this week in response to problems they voiced about the department's lack of cohesiveness.

Earlier this year, students majoring in the Russian and Soviet Studies program--an interdisciplinary option offered in the Slavic department--petitioned Chairman George G. Grabowicz to increase the number of tutorial offerings and to better coordinate department requirements.

The Russian and Soviet Studies program allows its nearly 45 students to take courses in three related fields: literature, history, government, or economics. Students said the department offered few classes which connected the various facets of their cross-department concentration.

After the unusual meeting Monday with about 20 concentrators, Grabowicz agreed to meet with other department heads, investigate the creation of a new department sub-specialty, and look for permanent solutions to a frequently-cited tutorial problem.

Trouble With Tutorials

This year the department offered junior tutorials for the first time, but the two newly-created classes probably will be discontinued after this year, students said. They requested tutorials which unified topics discussed in modern history and government courses, rather than tutorials just covering Russia before its 1917 revolution.

Because the History Department and the Government Department did not offer what these interdisciplinary students wanted, Russian and Soviet Studies students petitioned their own umbrella-department to fill in the gaps.

But several students said that these tutorials did not solve the whole problem. "The University made up this major [Russian and Soviet Studies], and made the Soviet Language and Literature Department responsible. But the program is dependent on courses in the History and Government Departments, and they have no responsibility [for our major]," said concentrator Melissa Frazier '87.

In Monday's meeting, students called for increased communication among the various departments involved. Richard Borden, the new head tutor for the Slavic department, said that the coordination had to extend to the administration as well.

"I don't think it's ever been established what the responsibility for each department is," Borden said.

Borden agreed with students who said that the new junior tutorials were only temporary solutions to the problems raised. The head tutor said, however, that he and Grabowicz would be able to address these issues on a more permanent basis now that they fully understood them.

"We'll try to better coordinate the departments in the future," he said. "Now that we're aware of these sorts of problems we can tackle them."

In addition to addressing these complaints at the meeting, Grabowicz proposed a new option within the department. That option, called Russian and Slavic Studies, would allow students to learn the languages and cultures of Slavic countries other than the Soviet Union.

"A lot of students thought maybe the department should concentrate on what's already there. They have a lot of problems already," Susan Stewart '88 said. She added, however, that the department chairman had assured students that the proposed option would not detract in any way from the existing programs.