DAN QUAGLIANA
News Editor
When people apply for college, they expect to go get their degree and then be supported by their alma mater when they apply for jobs after graduation.
But what happens when their college discontinues their major halfway through their time there?
That happened to Marisa Zoerb, a junior Spanish adolescence education major at SUNY Fredonia.
Spanish adolescence education is one of the 13 majors that is being considered for discontinuation at Fredonia, and it’s still unclear what’s going to happen after everyone currently enrolled in it graduates and leaves campus.
Zoerb decided to go to Fredonia because they were one of the few SUNY schools that had her major.
“I liked their small class sizes and how they were known for their quality education programs,” she said.
However, Zoerb was “heartbroken” to hear about the cuts. “My major and department mean so much to me,” she said.
While the university administration says that they are discontinuing Spanish adolescence education and other majors in order to save costs, something that a lot of students say they aren’t considering is that prospective students will see these decisions and decide not to come here because of this.
“If I was a high school senior now, I would not [have chosen] to come here. Which is unfortunate, because I wouldn’t have been able to know the professors and department that I love so dearly here,” Zoerb said.
She also said, “The reputation of the education department will be tarnished since they are cutting important programs from that department.”
General education classes in Spanish and the other cut majors will still be required to be taught at Fredonia, as per SUNY guidelines. Because of this, what will become of the professors in these departments is still unknown — the university administration hasn’t released any plans.
The possibility of professors losing their jobs “saddens me,” said Zoerb. “I would hate to see any of my professors lose their positions at Fredonia. I believe that all of them are high-quality educators that provide students in the department with knowledge on Spanish grammar, culture and history.”
The United States is currently experiencing a surge in the amount of people whose first language is Spanish, and Zoerb thinks that, “our public schools will need educators that [can teach] Spanish and English as a second language (ESL) [classes]. Foreign language education is very important in the current state of the country.”
Beyond the present, Zoerb is worried about losing her support network here after she graduates.
“If I get a position as a Spanish high school teacher and have to teach more of the difficult topics in grammar, I might need assistance on how to effectively teach that,” she said. “I would still have my education department at Fredonia, but none of the education professors at Fredonia have experience as a foreign language teacher. My best option would be to get advice from my previous Spanish professors, which I wouldn’t be able to do.”
She does not think that anything about the University’s recent decisions is good. She claims that the college’s “reputation will be tarnished if they remove all their foreign language programs. If the school wants to move in a futuristic direction as they claim, the removal of my program will not be achieving that.”
Zoerb refers to Fredonia’s “True Blue Transformation,” the Strategic Plan to revitalize the University.
The website claims that Fredonia tries to, “Recruit and retain diverse students, faculty and staff, to add to the cultural fabric of all aspects of our institution to ensure Fredonia’s footprint of growth and development globally,” as well as, “incentivize curriculum and co-curriculum initiatives focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and belonging through internationalization, scholarship, research and creative activities.”
Contrary to their public intentions, Zoerb believes that the school does not advertise her major, foreign language or international studies at all. “I do feel undervalued as a student since my major is overlooked a lot of [the] time, despite its importance,” she said.
That’s a sentiment that Zoerb shares with every student who has been affected by the program cuts.
One of the reasons she chose to attend Fredonia was because they were, “known for their quality education programs.”But she also said, “If foreign language education is cut, I wouldn’t agree with that anymore.”