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AS AMERICAN institutions of higher education limp into the next millennium, foreign language department chairs face new exigencies that further complicate an already complicated job. Chairs have served as psychologists, cheerleaders, referees, disciplinarians, soothsayers, mentors, advocates, accountants, and resources managers. Now, however, three factors compel them to take on the roles of fund-raiser, program developer, and entrepreneur. First, as internal funding continues to shrink, chairs can no longer expect their administrators to fund curriculum development, faculty and graduate student development, lab and library resources, and teaching materials. Some chairs already face meager funding for everyday functions such as photocopying, office supplies, and long-distance telephone calls. Second, as foreign language programs add applied and professional components to the traditional literature curriculum, many chairs will be expected to take a greater role in curriculum revision and development. Third, many foreign language departments, especially those in metropolitan colleges and universities, are now expected to work outside the ivory tower in close interaction with business, industry, government, and the community. But the chair's new responsibilities are not as daunting as they might first appear. In this paper I outline ways in which foreign language department chairs can successfully and painlessly add fund-raiser, program developer, and entrepreneur to their other roles.
Many chairs direct departments at institutions where funding is so tight that a moratorium exists new programs through appropriated channels for the rest of the millennium. Others are slightly more fortunate financially but are at institutions where the study of foreign languages is given low priority and is unlikely to be adequately funded. Chairs who are willing to seek external funding need not depend financially on administrators for funding for program development, faculty development, and lab and library resources even though funding through the Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and private sources at current levels is now in question. My department and institution have received close to $500,000 during the past three years for course development and revision, faculty retraining, travel, lab equipment and materials, library resources, and consultants on program development. Below are overviews of three key selected funding sources that focus on program development, as well as brief descriptions of some other funding initiatives.
The Title VI A grant initiative, as noted in its application guidelines, provides grants to institutions of higher education, individually or in combination, “to plan, develop, and implement programs to improve undergraduate instruction in international studies and foreign languages“ (2). Even though this and other Department of Education resources are threatened by congressional budget cuts, the agency's program officers are encouraging institutions to continue applying for their program funding.
Interdisciplinary collaboration in program development and the strengthening of foreign language programs are the two key requirements for a Title VI A grant. Collaborative efforts can involve virtually any discipline from agriculture to women's studies, including the social sciences, engineering, business, the humanities, law, and the physical sciences. The requirement of strengthening foreign language programs is virtually unlimited in scope and can involve the development of foreign languages for professional purposes, the addition of new languages, the development of a new language major or minor, the development of foreign languages across the curriculum (FLAC), the integration of technology in existing foreign language courses, or the redesigning or development of language, literature, culture, and civilization courses. Title VI A grants, which provide approximately $125,000 over two years, are annually allotted to twenty-five to thirty applicants ranging in prestige from Ivy League institutions to community colleges. Title VI A funds projects as generic as “Strengthening International Studies and Foreign Languages at Institution X” and as specific as “Establishing a Latin American and Iberian Studies Program at Institution Y.”
The curriculum-development focus of Title VI A supports activities that chairs once expected their administrators to fund: the financing of released time for course development and revision, for travel, and for faculty retraining; the purchase of lab equipment and software; and the strengthening of library resources and teaching materials. For example, as a result of Boise State University's Title VI A grant (Loughrin-Sacco, Napier, and Widmayer) three foreign language faculty members attended business-language workshops and collected materials for business-language courses in Europe; several faculty members received released time for course preparation or enhancement; the director of the language resource center purchased two multimedia workstations and thousands of dollars' worth of teaching materials; several academic departments strengthened their library holdings; and the modern languages department funded several consultants.
There are three important steps in preparing a successful Title VI A proposal, which I describe in greater detail elsewhere (Loughrin-Sacco, “Internationalizing” and “External Funding Opportunities”). First, it is important to give yourself three or four months to prepare an application. Since the program's annual deadline occurs during the first week of November, I start prewriting and making preparations during the summer. This stage includes soliciting administrative approval for the project, conducting a needs and resources assessment, researching successful past Department of Education projects, designing and packaging the prospective project, and managing a collaborative working relationship among foreign language and non-foreign language colleagues. Second, it is crucial to develop a strong working relationship with a program officer. Trips to Washington are not necessary; it is more effective to work by telephone. The program officer will spend an abundance of time with applicants discussing their potential projects, answering all questions, pointing out elements of past successful projects, organizing budgets, reading drafts, providing encouragement, and so on. An applicant who bypasses this steps is unlikely to receive funding. Third, it is often advantageous to hire past Title VI A project directors or reviewers as consultants to assist the applicant in preparing the proposal. Careful preparation will help the applicant join the twenty-five to thirty-five percent of institutions who receive Title VI A funding.
For foreign language departments that enjoy good working relations with colleges of business, the Title VI B programs is an extremely attractive funding source. The application guidelines state that the program provides “cost sharing grants to IHEs [institutions of higher education] to promote linkages between such institutions and the American business community engaged in international activity” (2). In Boise State University's project (Napier, Loughrin-Sacco, Christensen, and Boyce), the College of Business, the Department of Modern Languages, the Boise Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Idaho Department of Commerce joined forces to offer semester-long and short courses, seminars, and internships for international business students and the business community. For the Department of Modern Languages, the project included the addition of a yearlong sequence entitled introduction to Translation and Interpretation, the purchase of translation software for the new courses and of materials to strengthen existing business-language courses, the development of an internship program, the acquisition of several new computers, and participation in a NAFTA workshop and a faculty internship program.
Title VI B, whose deadline for application is in November, funds projects for two years at a maximum of $150,000, but the program poses several obstacles to foreign language chairs. First, it has a lower success rate than the Title VI A program and funds fewer projects (15 versus 25 to 30). Consequently, it is rare for an institution to receive this grant on the first try. Second, language departments must allow their colleges of business to direct the design of the project and the writing of the narrative. Unlike the Title VI A program, Title VI B uses as proposal reviewers business educators and practitioners, who are not fond of humanities educators' writing style. Third, the Title VI B program does not directly require a foreign language component. In fact, most successful Title VI B projects have not included foreign language components, partly because of a lack of cooperation between the two academic units. But there are strategies for successful collaboration between foreign languages and business programs (Loughrin-Sacco, “Internationalizing”; Loughrin-Sacco and Ray). Such collaboration (orchestrated by the chairs as diplomat) can lead to increases in language enrollments and foreign language majors. Because of the close collaborative relation between foreign languages and business at Boise State University, many of our ninety-one majors have come to us from international business program.
The Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program, its application guidelines state, provides “grants to IHEs to improve programs in modern foreign languages and area studies through overseas group projects in research, training, and curriculum development” (2). The program's application deadline is in October. Fulbright-Hays focuses on faculty and student development and may be of interest to department chairs who teach French, Spanish, and some less commonly taught languages for two reasons. First, Fulbright-Hays grants can be used to enhance articulation between K-12 foreign language educators and the chair's institution by offering K-12 educators two- to six-week seminar overseas. Second, the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program also sponsors overseas seminars for postsecondary students and professors. It funds travel, accommodations, per diems, and other overseas expanses during the course of the seminar but not related activity that takes place in the United States. One major drawback of the program is the limitation of seminar venues. Fulbright-Hays favors seminars in Third World nations, notably in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and excludes European and North American countries from the program. The success rate for this program is approximately twenty-five per#162; most seminars are funded in the $50,000 range.
In summer 1993, the Department of Modern Languages sponsored a five-week seminar in Quito, Ecuador, for twenty-three K-12 Idaho Spanish teachers. The seminar offered teachers course work in language, literature, culture, civilization, pedagogy, and business with focus on contemporary socioeconomic and geopolitical issues in Ecuador and South America (Kappler-Crookston, Loughrin-Sacco, and Leverett). The seminar also included home stays and several excursions to visit the Colorado Indians, the Amazon, the Andes, Guayaquil, and coastal beaches. Participants were required to complete instructional units for use in their K-12 classes. The seminar contributed to stronger ties between these teachers and university; consequently, many K-12 Spanish teachers now promote Boise State's foreign language program to their students.
Numerous other public and private funding sources support program development, the strengthening of library resources, the purchase of teaching materials, the addition of new faculty members, and so on. For program development, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) have generously awarded foreign language programs, especially FLAC projects, in the past. NEH and FIPSE grants last one to three years, and their awards are in the $100,000 to $400,000 range. Despite the generous sums, there are two major drawbacks to the programs: NEH is currently threatened by congress with extinction, while FIPSE has a success rate of around four percent.
The Japan Foundation offers three funding programs for embryonic Japanese programs in higher education. The Salary Assistance Program will provide funding for a full-time Japanese instructor for up to three years, with the expectation that the institution will then support the position itself. The Library Assistance Program will give institutions up to $6,000 to strengthen Japanese area studies library holdings. Finally, the Teaching Materials Program will assist new or emerging Japanese programs with $2,000 worth of dictionaries, software, textbooks, and so on. If chairs nurture relationships with their regional Japanese consuls general, their institutions can receive Japan Foundation grants as well as other grant opportunities available through Japanese foundations and corporations.
Finally, chairs can secure funding for the teaching of foreign languages from governments whose languages are taught in their departments. For example, the government of Quebec annually provides Boise State with library resources worth $1,000; Quebec has also awarded me a faculty development grant of $5,000 for the development of a business French course on Quebec and $20,000 for the development of a business French textbook on Quebec. The French Cultural Services, the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Goethe Institute also generously support foreign language departments.
Just the sound of the word entrepreneur strikes fear or induces resentment in many chairs who were trained as literary scholars or philologists and who may have purposely avoided a career in business. For many chairs and faculty members, being an entrepreneur is the antithesis of being an academician. Some chairs, however, are receptive to the idea of developing entrepreneurial outreach programs but do not know how to initiate and manage them.
An entrepreneurial outreach program is a for-profit venture in which a department markets and sells to the public services that draw on the expertise of the department's faculty members, students, or colleagues in the local community. For years, many departments have benefited from such programs. Foreign language departments possess knowledge and talents that are in demand by businesses, industry, government, and the local community. At many institutions, these constituencies are inquiring more and more about translation and interpretation services; the availability of on-site, noncredit foreign language courses; and faculty expertise in culture and intercultural communication. Participants in these programs can include tenure-track or adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and experts in the local community. Revenues from Boise State University's program provide unlimited professional travel for language faculty members, lab resources, faculty and student training, xeroxing, long-distance telephone calls, faxes, and supplies. One benefit of unlimited travel is that it enhances research and attracts new faculty members. At research institutions, revenues from an entrepreneurial outreach program could provide graduate students with professional travel and training that they would not normally receive. Below are suggestions based on Boise State University's entrepreneurial outreach program, managed by the Department of Modern Languages.
In 1992, the Boise Area Chamber of Commerce offered the Department of Modern Languages its master list of 125 translators and interpreters that it had supplied as a not-for-profit service for local companies. The chamber considered the translation service a nuisance, whereas the department saw it as an opportunity to serve the local community and bringing in needed money. The department coordinates this network of translators, contracting projects as they come in. A translator bids on the project; if the client approves the bid, the department faxes, e-mails, or delivers the project to the translator, who returns it to the client on completion. Translators charge $25 to $70 a page, and interpreters charge an hourly fee. The department adds a twenty percent service charge to the cost of the translation project. Clients can claim this charge as a tax-deductible gift.
At Boise State University, few tenure-track professors serve as translators or interpreters because of their lack of training and their other professional duties. To avoid charges of unfair competition by professional translation services in Boise, the department does not undercut the rates offered by professional translators. In fact, the department often uses its competitors on projects, and it employs a professional translator as an instructor for its business Spanish course and its new courses in translation and interpreting.
Until recently, the service operated locally, using local translators but it has expanded to include translators from other countries and now accepts contracting projects nationwide. The use of a fax machine and the Internet made this expansion possible. The department hopes to increase its business worldwide by publishing a home page on the World Wide Web and using other marketing techniques. Any foreign language department, regardless of its location, can now establish its own translation agency if it has a fax machine and access to the Internet.
For institutions located near companies, government agencies, and medical facilities, on-site teaching and tutoring is even more profitable than a translation and interpreting service. At Boise State, the Department of Modern Languages offers tailor-made courses or tutoring for Idaho companies, government agencies, and medical facilities in Japanese, Spanish, or whatever language a company needs. Clients include Hewlett-Packard, the J. R. Simplot Company, Micron Technology, Saint Alphonsus Hospital, and the Treasure Valley legal community. Hewlett-Packard alone provides $40,000 in on-site teaching revenues to instructors and the department. For the most part, the department uses adjuncts and area teachers instead of tenure-track professors. Again, the department adds a twenty-percent service charge.
As more and more American businesses enter the global marketplace, there is a need for language and area studies experts to help business understand cultural issues involved in international trade. In exporting products and services to Quebec, for example, a business must be aware of historical, political, and socioeconomic contexts in which business takes place in Quebec. Ignorance of French-only laws in conducting business will usually doom an American business's chances to sell. Every foreign language department, as well as some other academic departments, has area-studies specialists who understand cultures from variety of perspectives. Even academics who are Latin American specialists can teach business about Latin American cultures and thereby help them market their products and services more effectively. For example, Boise State offered a daylong business seminar entitled “NAFTA Revisited.” The seminar, which united business experts, foreign language faculty members, and historians, covered Quebec's French-only laws, the history of Canadian-American trade difficulties, and the history of the maquilladores in Mexico. The seminar, which attracted around fifty business practitioners and government officials, demonstrated how business experts and humanities faculty members can work together to provide a holistic perspective in international trade. Because businesses generally have training budgets for their employees, they are very likely to accept well-designed proposals for individual consulting, short courses, or seminars pertaining to culture or intercultural communication.
Chairs who wish to establish entrepreneurial outreach programs must first determine their personnel resources: who, in the community or elsewhere, can serve as a translator, an interpreter, a workshop provider, a consultant, or an on-site language teacher or tutor. Second, they should survey the foreign language and intercultural communication needs of their extramural communities. Third, chairs must determine the department's service fee: should it be ten percent, twenty percent, or more? Fourth, they should advertise their departments' services through various means (letters to companies, newspaper articles, local TV talk shows, media advertisements, or speaking engagements at Rotary, Lions, or Kiwanis clubs). Finally, they need to devise a system to handle inquiries and farm out translation, consulting, or teaching projects. At Boise State University, the secretary of the Department of Modern Languages handles all inquiries, farms out projects, and deposits payments in the department's local account. The goal is to implement an outreach program that does not interfere with the normal running of the department. In a well-run outreach program, faculty members continue to teach, conduct research, and perform service without obligating themselves to entrepreneurial duties.
This paper is intended to encourage foreign language chairs to take on their roles of fund-raiser, programs developer, and entrepreneur. What seems like a piling on of duties is actually a blessing in disguise. By becoming successful in these roles, chairs improve relations between the language department and the extramural community that public institutions are mandated to serve. Given the public's negative perception of higher education, leaving the ivory tower to serve the community may improve academia's public image. Further, by increasing revenues through grants and outreach, chairs have more freedom to improve foreign language curricula, support faculty research, increase faculty and student training, strengthen language resource centers, and so on. By participating in Department of Education grants, foreign language departments must work in a more interdisciplinary way with colleagues all over campus. Finally, given the decline of funding to higher education, proactive language departments that take initiative in program development and revenue generation will earn added respect from their deans, provosts, and presidents. The efficient use of resources, as evidenced in part by grant getting and entrepreneurial outreach, remains a major criterion for determining which departments receive new tenure-track positions. In the future, administrators may require departments to seek external funding for program development and other departmental responsibilities more actively. As the public expects institutions to do more with less, proactive language departments will counter this expectation by doing more with more.
The author is Associate Professor of French and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages at Boise State University. This article is based on his presentation at ADFL Seminar West, 22–24 June 1995, in Eugene, Oregon.
Applications for Grants under the Business and International Education Program, Fiscal Year 1994. Washington: US Dept. of Educ., 1994.
Applications for Grants under the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program, Fiscal Year 1994. Washington: US Dept. of Educ., 1994.
Applications for Grants under the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program, Fiscal Year 1994. Washington: Us Dept. of Educ., 1994.
Kappler-Crookston, Irina, Steven J. Loughrin-Sacco, and Rudy Leverett. “Seminar on the Contemporary Socio-Economic, Political, and Cultural Situation in Ecuador and South America.” Grant proposal. US Dept. of Educ., Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program, 1993.
Loughrin-Sacco, Steven J. “External Funding Opportunities for US Postsecondary Business French Programs.” Issues and Methods in French for Business and Economic Purposes. Ed. Patricia Cummins. Urbana: Amer. Assn. of Teachers of French. 1995. 148–56.
———. “Internationalizing the Business Curriculum: Suggestions and Insights into Securing Funding from the US Department of Education's Title VI Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program.” Near and Far Horizons . Ed. Sam J. Bruno. Houston: Assn. for Business Communication, 1991. 27–40.
Loughrin-Sacco, Steven J., Nancy K. Napier, and Jan Widmayer. “Strengthening the International Business Major and Minor at Boise State University.” Grant proposal. US Dept. of Educ., Title VI A Undergraduate Intl. Studies and Foreign Lang. program, 1993.
Loughrin-Sacco, Steven J., and Nina Ray. “A Collaborative Model for Securing Funding from the US Department of Education's Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program.“ Relationship Marketing in a Time of Change. Ed. Gary L. Karns and Debra A. Haley. Scottsdale: Western Marketing Educators' Assn., 1994. 350–53.
Napier, Nancy K., Steven J. Loughrin-Sacco, David P. N. Christensen, and Shirl C. Boyce. “The Idaho Connection: Building Links between Business, Government, and Boise State University.” Grant proposal. US Dept. of Educ., Title VI B Business and Intl. Educ. program, 1994.
© 1996 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
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