U.C. Santa Cruz’s Hebrew program has been spared the budget ax, but the language’s supporters say they must still find ways to boost enrollment to ensure its long-term survival.
“I am very glad it wasn’t cut,” Hebrew instructor Hava Ratinsky said last week. “But I’m very well aware that this remedy is only very temporary. And the danger is still looming.”
Dean of Humanities Jorge Hankamer released his recommendations Tuesday of last week for $100,000 in budget cuts to UCSC’s language department for the 1997-98 school year.
“We haven’t made final decisions about budget cuts yet, but the decision has been made to continue Hebrew,” Hankamer said.
His announcement caps the persistent rallying by students, faculty and Jewish community leaders since Hebrew’s vulnerability to cuts became public in the fall.
Their efforts to save Hebrew included meeting several times with UCSC officials, gathering letters of support and collecting nearly 1,000 signatures on a campus backing the Hebrew program.
Ayal Goury, a student who helped gather petition signatures, said Hankamer’s decision surprised him.
“I didn’t think they would save the program, to tell the truth,” said Goury, a senior. “It’s good to see that students can make an impact.”
Instead of cutting Hebrew, Hankamer has proposed eliminating all three years of Russian. That would save $50,000 — about half the required reductions.
“It’s a heavy cut, but it’s the weakest language we have,” he said.
These cuts are part of an overall reduction in state funds to the U.C. campuses since the early 1990s, according to Hankamer.
Both Hebrew and Russian were considered the most vulnerable of the university’s eight languages because they have the lowest enrollments.
Only two students are currently enrolled in second-year Russian, Hankamer said. This figure is even smaller than the enrollment of three students in second-year Hebrew.
Though both enrollments are extremely low, Hankamer sees dissimilarities.
“The major difference in my mind is that I can envision some experiments to make Hebrew more viable, but I can’t figure out anything to do with Russian,” he said.
Those experiments include trying to boost enrollment by opening Hebrew to the public through the university’s extension program.
The Hebrew program may not completely escape restructuring. Noting the low enrollment in second-year Hebrew, Hankamer said he is “leaning toward” offering only first-year Hebrew, but scheduling it every year.
Of all the languages taught at UCSC, Hebrew is the only one taught on a two-year cycle, with first- and second-year classes offered in alternating school years. When it was last offered in the 1995-96 school year, 25 students signed up for the first quarter of beginning Hebrew.
Santa Cruz Hillel Director Lorin Troderman, who joined Ratinsky and Aptos’ Temple Beth El Rabbi Richard Litvak in fighting to keep Hebrew, hopes offering the beginning Hebrew course every year will create a larger pool of potential students for the next level of Hebrew.
Ratinsky, however, disagrees with cutting second-year Hebrew. She would prefer to restructure the program so that both levels of Hebrew are offered every year.
Hebrew’s supporters said the current approach discourages students from enrolling.
“As long as it’s offered in the way it has been,” Ratinsky said, “I don’t think it has a chance to survive.”