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To be or not to be

This faculty has been the scene of considerable political infighting over the last few weeks. The battlefield smoke has not yet fully cleared, but a rough estimation of events follows.

The Faculty of Lang and Lit. (hereafter FLL) contains the foreign language departments (excepting Maori which is part of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts — FA), and the Department of English. English is by far the largest department, its staff numbers being only a little under half the Faculty's. Consequently the Department has a large say in what goes on in the faculty, a power some departments have been critical of.

While most of its meetings are conjoint ones with the FA, FLL does have some peculiar habits. One of these is the degree structure. The honours course consists in most cases of six papers, making it very difficult for students who wish to combine Arts and Lang and Lit honours courses in their study programme. The L and L courses have another anomaly, in that they are termed MA(hons) rather than BA(hons) for Arts honours degrees. The only difference this makes in appreciable terms is that those select few students going on to post-honours programmes have to take PhD courses in LandL (for which they cannot get a Dept. of Education bursaries), while they can in Arts take either PhD or MA (for which the bursaries are available) courses. White this may appear to be a trifling point, given the stress departments place on their 'successes' (i.e. postgraduate students), and the fact that department grants are to some extent dependent on student numbers, it is easy to see why the concern.

English started the ball rolling early this year by, it seems unilaterally (since many other people in FLL were known to be opposed to it), changing its MA(hons) to a BA(hons), reducing the papers from six to five. This means it has been made even more difficult to easily combine honours papers from different subjects. At least previously there was some correlation between three English and two Arts papers, and a clear English/other Lang. and Lit. papers equality. Now there is neither.

When English did this, there was apparently considerable dissatisfaction in the other departments of FLL, feeling being that English had gone too far, and that its power should be curtailed. Particularly it was proposed to abolish FLL and join FA. As noted below, this was rationalised at the meeting to the fact that other Departments would follow the English lead and convert to a BA(hons) degree. This is really no reason at all, as there is no need to change faculties just because one degree is being changed. Also, if others use a five-paper honours course, they're not particularly similar to Arts anyway.

The only business to be discussed by the Faculty at their meeting on April 24, was a proposal moved by Professor Kooznetzoff of the German Department, namely:

'That the Faculty of Languages and Literature amalgamate with the Faculty of Arts.

One of the arguments against the move was, that in having two faculties, two Deans were able to sit on the committee of Vice-Chancellor and Deans and that this double voice had distinct advantages. For example, in the case of the language laboratories, this extra vote resulted in more funds for this faculty. The Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Literature also sits on the University Scholarships Committee, and it was claimed that this is an advantage to language students whose interests in this area would or could be overshadowed by the interests of students in larger departments if the faculties merged and hence only had one Dean representing their interests.

Professor Kooznetzoff argued that because the degree structure had changed in the English Department from a BA, MA (Hons) to a BA, BA (Hons), MA structure, that this change would probably follow in other language departments and hence there was no longer reason for the Faculty to remain as a separate body. However, the Faculty of Languages and Literature, it was claimed, is more a body of common interests and collaborative teaching which was seen by many members of the Faculty as being an important reason for its continued existence. These bonds and ties of common interest are supposedly going to be strengthened with the occupation of the Von Zedlitz building. Whether this means that the lifts are going to become the focal point for academic discussion, and initiate closer ties, better courses, and more collaboration between departments, we don't know. In reference to Von Zedlitz, Koro Dewes, a lecturer in Maori, expressed his interest in having Maori situated in the building along with the Departments of the Languages and Literature Faculty, with the preference of having Maori situated on a stable floor like the ground floor rather than on either of the two highest and very 'iffy' storeys of the Von Zedlitz!

Incidentally, the motion was lost — unanimously.