Since the first announcement of the impending faculty and department cuts in June 2023, Seattle Pacific University plans for the disbanding of 13 programs by June 2025, including the entire language and linguistics department.

No longer will students have the opportunity to pursue a major or minor in a language, and elementary language courses will only be offered to satisfy general education requirements. Current professors and staff within the department see this as a devastating loss to student opportunity and higher education. 

Dr. Michelle Beauclair, department chair of the linguistics and culture studies department, feels that advanced language and cultural courses are essential to a well-rounded understanding and fluency of a language. She sees the loss of the department as a huge blow to the cultural education and engagement of students. 

“True communicative proficiency in a language cannot be achieved without understanding the cultural contexts in which those languages are used,” Beauclair said. 

Kenzie Garrett, a senior physiology student, has seen friends and family use their language education to further their careers and dreams. Without access to these degrees, she feels the university is limiting students’ career potential.  

“I know friends who have gone on language-specific study abroad trips, and I have a cousin who has two different degrees and languages and they’re important to have [for] historical context, cultural context and so many other things,” Garrett said.  

Dr. Robert Baah, professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, worries for the professional dreams of his current students and prospective students – students who desire careers that rely on and are enhanced by obtaining a minor or major in language will be forced to find other ways to achieve their goals.

“I had a student in my office, a freshman, and her friends were going to come to SPU,” Baah said. “But when they heard about the cuts, they said, ‘Nope, we are going to go somewhere else.’”

Beauclair also sees this as an inevitable outcome of the university’s decision. She recounts the past students who are positively representing SPU in professions that they only could have obtained with a language and cultural studies degree.   

“We currently have SPU graduates who are working in the U.S. Department of State on diplomatic missions; we have SPU alumnae whose native language is English who are now living and working all over the world; we have recent graduates who have received prestigious international teaching assistantships and Fulbright awards,” Beauclair said. 

With the language and linguistics department, SPU has given immense opportunities for students to professionally advance both regionally and globally. Alexis Nield, junior cell and molecular biology major, worries that with this specific department being cut, the university as a whole will be behind in the global academic scene. 

“I think not having access to a higher level language class will be damaging because we’re already behind as a country compared to other countries in terms of knowing how to speak languages,” Nield said. 

Not only are these administrative decisions affecting the number of prospective students, but they are also impacting the potential community of current students. With dwindling resources and staff, the remaining months for students in many departments will be spent in the company of the few remaining peers and professors. 

“They are not going to be able to pursue their dreams. In essence, what you’re doing is short-changing their experience; their experience has to be joyful and now that experience is being rushed. We are forcing them to change pretty much what they intended to do,” Baah said. 

Despite the dim future, Baah sees a light at the end of the tunnel and is confident this will not be the last of the SPU language and linguistics department. Baah urges students, faculty and staff to hold on to hope and to not give up on the university. 

“If I had a message for the larger SPU community, which I have been a part of for the last 29, 30 years, it would be a message of optimism. That we serve a living God and that we should be optimistic. That this is a bump in the road,” Baah said.