No, she insisted, she could never go back to Zanesville. Of course, she would continue to visit her hometown but she would not live there again. My student’s words were adamant but her voice broke with undisguised sadness.

This just in from the Chronicle of Higher Education's Ticker:"The College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin has dropped a plan to reduce foreign-language requirements in the face of faculty outrage."

Not too long ago, I received a quotation via email from a colleague at one of the other UC schools that read: “Nothing we have said about the teacher's primary responsibility for defining the intellectual purpose of the university should obscure the fact that American teachers in the recent past have shamelessly abdicated this responsibility.

This piece, "The Real Reasons to Support Language Study," published July 27, 2009 in The Chronicle of Higher Education, is particularly relevant given the recent announcement by UCLA to issue lay-off letters to its state-funded, "post-six" lecturers.

Lately, I've been trying to educate myself on the way that public higher education works, particularly at the University of California where I teach.