Beginning Chinese-language classes dropped at USU

By Aaron Falk

March 10, 2006 | Due to budget cuts, first-year courses of the most commonly spoken language in the world will no longer be offered at USU.

Entry-level Chinese will be cut from the USU catalog beginning next fall, Charlie Huenemann, head of the languages, philosophy and speech communication department, said.

Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than 1 billion people and Huenemann said cutting the program is even more difficult as China continues to emerge as the fastest-growing economy in the world.

"I think it's unfortunate," he said. "But we have no tenure-track professors in Chinese and programs without tenure-track professors are very vulnerable." The university currently employs "the equivalent of two professors" for its Chinese program, Huenemann said.

USU will still offer a Chinese minor, he said, but students would have to take the entry-level courses at another institution or online.

No other language programs have been affected by the cut backs, Huenemann said. Although, he said, the department has had to "dip into extra resources" to continue offering Korean courses. "I'm sure everyone wishes we would have the resources for a more robust Chinese program," Huenemann said.

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