Impact

Russian plummets, Spanish dominating

More than half of all U.S. college students who are studying a foreign language are enrolled in Spanish classes, according to a new report from the Modern Language Association (MLA). According to last week's Chronicle of Higher Education, the MLA enrollment, survey was based on figures from fall enrollment 1995, at 2,399 institutions. This is the first time in 38 years that a single language has so dominated the field, the Chronicle reported. The sharpest drop was in Russian, where registrations fell 44.6 percent in five years.

Florida tenured faculty to undergo reviews

Tenured faculty in Florida's state university system will have to undergo performance evaluation at least once every seven years, according to the Chronicle. The Florida Board of Regents voted for the measure which was developed over a two-year period with the help of United Faculty of Florida, the union representing professors.

Political interest among students decreasing

Students' commitment to "keeping up to date with political affairs" as an important life goal dropped for the third straight year, according to a national survey of the freshman class of 1995 conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute. The percentage dropped to 29 percent, compared to 42 percent in 1990 and 58 percent in 1966. The percentage that discusses politics frequently also reached an all-time low of 15 percent, down from 25 percent in 1992 and 30 percent in 1968.

While student activism rose in the early 1990s, freshmen since 1992 have become less interested in "influencing social values" (from 43 percent to 38 percent), "cleaning up the environment" (from 34 percent to 23 percent), "influencing the political structure" (from 20 percent to 17 percent), "promoting racial understanding" (from 42 percent to 33 percent) and "participating in a community action program" (from 26 percent to 23 percent).

Consistent with these trends is the finding that the percentage of students who believe that "an individual can do little to change society" reached a ten-year high at 34 percent.

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