McGill students petition against cuts to language courses

McGill University students are petitioning against a plan to consolidate several language programs under one department. “The university’s recent austerity cuts, we believe, are significantly hurting McGill University’s image as a world-leading university in a multicultural country and a bilingual city,” second-year Russian and Italian studies student, Michael Beauvais, who started the petition, told the Montreal Gazette. The plan, which is expected to take effect before the fall, would see Italian, German, and Russian/Slavic language departments housed under the same roof, while limiting access to language courses to students enroled in those programs. Several individual language courses have also been cut from the curriculum. The university says the reorganization allows for cost savings and addresses under-enrolment in the upper years language programs. More than 300 students have signed Beauvais’ petition.