International student Rafet Kahraman said his friends in Turkey are no longer planning on applying to GW after the University decided earlier this semester to cut the Department of English as a Foreign Language.
“Unfortunately, they will not be able come here,” he said.
Kahraman said his future at GW is also questionable depending on whether he is accepted to the School of Business and Public Management for the fall. If he is rejected, he said he may have to transfer to George Mason University.
EFL department Chair Candace Matthews said she and nine of her fellow full-time faculty were “surprised” by the administration’s decision to replace the department in late February.
“We knew they were considering changing us from a department to a program … but we were surprised that the decision was to close the department all together,” Matthews said.
William Frawley, dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, said the University is looking to replace the EFL department with a Center for Language Learning and Teaching.
“GW will continue to meet all EFL needs, but with a different organization,” Frawley wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. “This structure will position us better to offer EFL in a targeted and effective way.”
Frawley said a majority of the CCAS faculty approved the closure of the department after “reviewing the long history of CCAS studies of the functioning and effectiveness of the department.”
Frawley did not respond to questions about whether the decision would save the department money in the midst of University-wide budget cuts.
Matthews said GW officials cited both economic and academic reasons for closing the department but declined to give details. She said cutting EFL puts GW at a disadvantage.
“I think it’s important for the University to provide maximum support for those who are providing ‘diversity’ for GW,” she said, noting that some academic advisers from embassies have already complained. “If GW is to be a premier institution, it needs to attract and retain international students.”
She said the number of international students enrolled in EFL courses has declined since fall 2000 because of a late ’90s Asian economic crisis and U.S. government policies after September 11.
Since 440 students took EFL classes during the 2000-01 school year, the department has seen a decrease to 362 students this year.
Following September 11, Matthews also said the federal government has cut down on the number of student visas they are giving to foreign students – especially from the Middle East – to study English.
GW admitted only 53 students directly to the EFL department for this year compared to 142 admits for the fall of 2001. Kahraman and Ajlan Alsabousi are two of the students who were directly accepted into the EFL program.
“I feel it’s terrible (the department is being cut),” Alsabousi said, adding that he is looking to pursue accounting at GW.
The rest of the students who take EFL courses are enrolled in other GW schools and take EFL classes as a supplement to their majors. Matthews said international students from other schools will need EFL support.
Frawley said the decision to cut the department coincided with the reconfiguration of the GW language laboratory.
“We expect the (new center) to be a cutting-edge facility that combines both technology and human support for language instruction and learning,” Frawley said.
Matthews said the EFL department faculty has an “amazing amount of experience,” as seven faculty members have more than 20 years of teaching experience. She said all the faculty members are contracted at least through next year and do not know what the future holds past their current contracts.
Frawley said the University will honor current EFL faculty contracts through their terms.
