<p>As I understand it, the Linguistics department contains the Linguistics major and the Language Studies major. There is also the Italian Studies major, which is actually what my Italian classes are listed under. However, even if you did away with Italian Studies and Language Studies and rewrote the catalog so that the language courses were listed under Linguistics, I still wouldn’t really support this plan. Even though I am personally uninterested in all of the departments and majors that have Studies explicitly stated in their titles, I feel that some of these programs are still academically important (with the obvious exception of Feminist Studies, which is silly). These programs involve a cross-discipline approach that encourages students to see the big picture and the interconnectedness of different fields of study. One problem that has developed in science over time is that scientists are becoming increasingly specialized in their research and expertise, while the science itself has always been thoroughly interconnected. This problem could just as easily affect other academic programs. I’d like to think that the goal of the “Studies” majors is to produce modern Renaissance men and women.</p>
<p>To be fair, I am less concerned with the bottom line than I am with the quality of education because I am young and my source of funding is secure.</p>