Chinese program to be discontinued

Low enrollment, trouble finding qualified teacher lead administrators to cease offering program

Chinese+program+to+be+discontinued

Joe Okkema, News Editor

Due to a sustained declining trend in enrollment in the Chinese program at LT, administrators have decided to cease offering the program to students of the class of 2019 and phase out the program for students currently enrolled in it over the next three years.

Per school policy, whenever an elective program being offered has fewer than 18 students enrolled, that class must receive special approval. Since the Chinese program did not meet that requirement for roughly five years in a row, discontinuing the program was under close consideration for the past several years, Chinese teacher Mary Christina Oxtoby said.

The decision to end the program came as a direct result of Oxtoby’s decision to leave her position at LT to pursue other endeavors, she said.

“Anytime a program is eliminated, it’s sad,” Fine Arts Division Chair Paula Nardi said.  “I am disappointed that LT has not been able to maintain or grow the Chinese enrollment and that incoming freshman students won’t have the opportunity, but I am glad that we will be able to accommodate the current students in the program.”

Administrators have begun the process of searching for a teacher to fill the vacant position to continue teaching students currently in the program until it is fully phased out, but have encountered some difficulty.

“It’s not that teachers are hard to find, but since it is only a part-time position, there are very few interested qualified teachers,” Nardi said.

If a qualified teacher is not found, administrators are currently investigating potential online programs, such as one offered through Michigan State University, that students currently in the program can use until they graduate, Oxtoby said.

In the meantime however, students currently enrolled in the program as well as prospective students are disappointed in the loss of the program.

“I think students and parents are disappointed, but they understand that in order to maintain a quality program, we need students to enroll and a qualified, dedicated teacher,” Nardi said.

As of now, no plans have been made to offer another language in place of Chinese.

“I think this situation is unfortunate considering [Chinese] is such an important language in today’s world,” Chinese student Quinn Winters ‘15. “I think it’s just going to be a missed opportunity for a lot of students.”