This 2025-2026 academic year, the Modern Languages and Literatures (MLL) Department’s Language Assistant program will be gone for the first time in almost forty years. The Language Assistants once acted in roles similar to those of Teaching Assistants or Supplemental Instructors for foreign language education at Union. The program included advanced language students, recent graduates with backgrounds in teaching, or sometimes programs like Fulbright or ALLEX, and all were native speakers of the language they taught. Language Assistants typically aided their language programs by working with Union students on language learning beyond the classroom in a manner that was authentic and interactive, in sessions referred to as “language labs” that were run by the program. Besides running language labs, Language Assistants also aided in running weekly language tables and worked with clubs to organize cultural events.
These community members were crucial in broadening Union students’ horizons about foreign languages, with Professor Kristin Bidoshi, Professor of Russian and Director of Russian and East European Studies, stating that they “supported classroom learning, created authentic cultural encounters for our students, and helped build an international presence on campus that underscored Union’s commitment to globalism. Beyond teaching grammar, they also helped students to understand that learning a language is largely experiential, human, and immediate.”
Union College administration has cited financial and logistical issues as the primary reasons for the end of the program. Although the college has recently been dealing with budgetary issues, emphasis was primarily put on the administrative and logistical rigor that came with running the program. With the program being cut for the current academic year, it is unlikely to return in the near future, leaving its ultimate fate uncertain.
The end of the Language Assistant program has been met with mixed reactions from both MLL staff and students, many of whom have expressed disappointment with the program’s termination. Chinese minor Stan Yu ‘28 commented, “Cutting the Language Assistant [program] not only reduces our ability to further develop our language skills outside of class, but it also weakens our connection to the cultural aspect, since our Language Assistants were from the country where the language is spoken.”
Chinese minor Britny Quito ‘28 commented, “Cutting the Language Assistant program reduces the ability for students to explore and learn about other cultures via language, experiences, and stories from native speakers.”
Despite the challenges that have come with Language Assistants being cut, MLL professors and the department itself have found alternatives to aid their students in their language journeys. Although the Language Assistants are no longer at Union, Language Mentors, who are native-speaking Union students, offer one-on-one help at the Language Center. Outside of Language Mentors, other native speakers of the languages taught at Union are working with professors to continue some facets of the Language Assistant program in a renewed model. This aims to continue the language labs and tables with increased involvement from faculty, trained students, and club members.
When asked about the future of the department following the departure of the Language Assistants, Michele Ricci Bell, Associate Professor of German and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, said, “The Administration had lent its support to us, for which we are grateful, during this year in which we experimented to find the most effective approaches to this challenge. While no model will replace the full breadth of enrichment that the Language Assistants offered through the years, we aim to face this challenge with creativity and optimism.”
Although losing the Language Assistant Program has been a devastating blow to the MLL department and Union community as a whole, it seems as though professors and students have stepped up to the challenge and are ready to ensure that foreign language education stays strong at Union and that students continue to maintain the love they have for learning a new language.
