Language in Senate Bill 1, effective on June 27, 2025, for Kent State and other universities in Ohio, states that institutions of higher education should strive to create a community of “intellectual diversity,” or “multiple, divergent and varied perspectives.”

Yet, in the same document, lawmakers require that universities “eliminate any undergraduate degree program … if the institution confers an average of fewer than five degrees in that program annually over any three-year period.”

As a result, a myriad of Kent State’s small degree programs are at risk of closing forever. Undergraduate language degrees in the Department of Modern Classical & Language Studies are in particular danger because they have been battling low enrollment for years. 

According to data provided by Mary Marcin, a data officer in Kent State’s institutional research, during the past three years, across the eight programs currently offered in the area of foreign languages, literature and linguistics, only three undergraduate degree programs, American Sign Language, Spanish and translation, meet SB1’s five-degree-per-year average requirement. Language and culture undergraduate programs including French, German, Latin and Russian have not met SB1’s standards over the past three years.

If these trends continue, many of Kent State’s language programs may be eliminated.

“Learning a language is probably the best way to learn about culture as well as language because language and culture are so intimately connected,” says Brian James Baer, graduate studies coordinator in the MCLS department and professor of Russian translation studies. 

Baer also thinks of Kent State’s thriving study abroad programs and the potential benefits that foreign language study offers to students who participate in these programs.

“There’s been a big push at Kent State to encourage study abroad, but the study abroad experience is a thousand times richer if you can speak even a little of the language of the country where you’re studying,” Baer says. “You’ll find yourselves in conversations that you wouldn’t have if you were only speaking English.”

MCLS chair Patrick Gallagher believes language is essential to understanding different perspectives as a citizen of our global community.

“It’s not about demanding that students read ‘The Federalist Papers,’” Gallagher says, referring to the clause in SB1 that creates a required college course where students read several foundational American documents, including “The Federalist Papers.” “It’s about studying abroad. It’s about learning a different language, learning how people view the world through a vocabulary and a culture that is very different from what most of us experience in the U.S.”

For freshman Russian language and culture studies major Jacee Myers, learning a language is an opportunity that she’s looked forward to her entire life — something that makes her excited to learn every day.

Having spent her entire life fascinated by languages, Myers was looking forward to majoring in translation with a Russian concentration at Kent State, but due to low enrollment, Kent State has shifted its offerings in the Russian language. 

“I have had to switch my major from translation with a Russian concentration to a major in Russian language and culture studies,” Myers says. “It is still unclear whether or not I will be offered the courses needed to complete this degree. With the cuts to the language department and programs, it leads to the question of, ‘Am I going to get what I am paying for?’”

Kent State’s shift away from the Russian language major to the Russian language and culture studies major is part of an ongoing effort by MCLS faculty and staff to preserve language programs.

Low enrollment and budget cuts have caused new configurations of language degrees in an endeavor by the department to continue offering the languages that students want to study.

After years of fighting to preserve language programs, SB1 is just one more barrier that MCLS students and faculty must face.

Baer calls SB1’s closure of small undergraduate degree programs “short-sighted.” 

“It’s based on this very crude model of the university as a business, but universities serve many different functions in society,” Baer says. 

One of these functions is in national security. Without language specialists, the United States loses its ability to do the intelligence and soft diplomacy that’s so important in today’s world, Baer says.

Gallagher points out that employers prefer candidates who have a second language. 

“They’ll pay more for it,” Gallagher says. “We live in an international community where you really are at an advantage if you can speak a second language. It doesn’t even matter which one you speak because you can find something, somewhere or someone that needs the language pair that you speak.”

Despite the hardships it poses for the MCLS department, Gallagher chooses to look at SB1 as a necessity that will breed innovation within the program.

He and his colleagues are planning to propose a new undergraduate program that will allow Kent State to teach any language that students want and faculty can teach. This redesign will introduce a single language major with specializations.

“The idea is to be able to work like an accordion,” Gallagher says. “We can expand and contract the courses we offer based on the student interest that we have. I’m really excited about that, actually. I don’t like the circumstances that are pushing us in this direction, but I think we’re going to come up with some really good ideas, and we have great faculty who will do that.”

In the meantime, Gallagher and Baer continue to stress the importance of students enrolling in language programs and communicating with administrators that they want Kent State to be a university that offers a full range of coursework — even small programs.

Quinn Schafer is a web writer and copy editor. Contact her at [email protected].