Linguistics Dept. To Be Committee

The Department of Linguistics will soon assume committee status, potentially eliminating any formal linguistics degree programs, Professor of Philosophy Warren D. Goldfarb '69 said yesterday.

The change will be implemented when the Faculty accepts the forthcoming recommendations of a newly-formed Advisory Committee, said Goldfarb, who chairs the Committee.

The Committee will recommend to change the department into either a graduate degree committee, an undergraduate degree committee, or an interdisciplinary degree committee, Wolff said.

The decision to transform the department was made official this summer in a letter to all department members, and has garnered harsh criticism from students and faculty this fall.

According to the letter, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles decided to transform the department into a committee after several years of review. Knowles could not be reached for comment.

The committee, which includes Wolff, Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence E. Buell and the two senior Linguistics Department professors, will meet for the first time in the next two weeks to discuss ways to effect the change.

The recommendations may be submitted to the Faculty early this spring, according to Goldfarb.

But opponents of the decision say changing the department into a committee will severely undermine the quality and legitimacy of linguistics study at Harvard.

"If Harvard follows through, this will be a tremendous step backwards for linguistics," said Assistant Linguistics Head Tutor Charles D. Reiss.

To protest the change, about 20 undergraduate Linguistics concentrators last weekend formed the Harvard-Radcliffe Undergraduate Linguists' Society, which will meet Thursday with Wolff to discuss complaints.

"We are all really upset about the proposed changes," said Elizabeth L. Kent `94. "Essentially what they're doing is killing linguistics."

But Wolff and Goldfarb said yesterday that since Harvard linguistics is interdisciplinary, a committee drawing professors from different departments is more appropriate than an independent department.

Classes in other departments such as Slavic studies, Near Eastern Civilizations and East Asian Studies will incorporate the discipline into their programs, Wolff and Goldfarb said.

"Departments are more limited than committees," Wolff said yesterday. "[A committee] can draw on the larger linguistic faculty on campus in order to... make better use of the existing linguistic professors in various branches of the University."

But students and faculty said yesterday that Linguistics is not exclusively an interdisciplinary field and should remain a separate academic area with its own department.

"That Linguistics...interacts with other areas doesn't make it not appropriate for department status," said Associate Professor of Linguistics Mark Hale.

"There's a fundamental problem with the reasoning of the administration," said Kent. "While Linguistics applies to many different fields, the fundamental technical courses can only be taught by linguists."

MIT Professor of Linguistics Noam Chomsky, considered by many to be the founder of modern linguistics, earlier this year echoed the students complaints in a letter to President Rudenstine co-authored by MIT Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy Morris Halle.

"We felt [the change to committee status] wasin fact an unfortunate move," said Chomsky lastnight. "The Harvard department has been strong andactive...this will seriously undermine animportant component of the intellectual community.

"This is...another way of saying the programwill disappear," Chomsky added.

And both students and faculty are concernedthat the change will discourage the arrival ofexperts in linguistics.

"It's difficult to have a field present at auniversity if there's no department for it," saidJohn H. O'Neil, a Linguistics graduate student.

"It seems strange to eliminate this departmentwhen we're attracting a lot of students who go onto top graduate schools," Reiss said.

Hale said, "I hope whatever action theadministration takes protects what is now anexcellent department," Hale said

"We felt [the change to committee status] wasin fact an unfortunate move," said Chomsky lastnight. "The Harvard department has been strong andactive...this will seriously undermine animportant component of the intellectual community.

"This is...another way of saying the programwill disappear," Chomsky added.

And both students and faculty are concernedthat the change will discourage the arrival ofexperts in linguistics.

"It's difficult to have a field present at auniversity if there's no department for it," saidJohn H. O'Neil, a Linguistics graduate student.

"It seems strange to eliminate this departmentwhen we're attracting a lot of students who go onto top graduate schools," Reiss said.

Hale said, "I hope whatever action theadministration takes protects what is now anexcellent department," Hale said