Ninetieth Anniversary of the Linguistic Society of America: A Commemorative Symposium Saturday afternoon session, January 4, 2014 The LSA Linguistic Institutes Julia S. Falk La Jolla, California jsfalk@san.rr.com Surveys over the years have revealed that the members of the Linguistic Society of America consider the Linguistic Institutes to be the Society’s most important service to the profession, second only to the publication of Language (Linguistic Society of America Bulletin [hereafter Bul] 119, p. 3, 1988). Those who have participated know firsthand the spirit that makes Institutes so engaging and so warmly remembered. In Spring 1927, Reinhold Saleski – Professor of German at Bethany College in West Virginia – wrote to Roland Kent, Secretary of the Linguistic Society of America. Saleski proposed a Linguistic Institute for the summer of 1928. This “gathering of scholars for interchange of ideas” (Bul 2, p. 3, 1928) was modeled on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a summer program for research biologists under development at that time by the National Academy of Sciences (www.whoi.edu/main/history-legacy). Woods Hole had $2,500,000 in funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. The LSA budget balance was $799.36. It is not surprising that the Executive Committee was hesitant to embark on such a project. But Edgar Sturtevant was far from hesitant. Professor of Linguistics and Comparative Philology at Yale University, Sturtevant took up the idea and molded it into something very like the Linguistic Institutes we still have today. He broadened the scope to include both the “gathering of scholars” and the offering of course work. He gained a commitment from his university to provide facilities and to permit those who held the Ph.D. to attend at no charge. He developed a list of courses and promised 21 colleagues a teaching stipend of at least $250 each. And he successfully petitioned the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for $2,500 in support of these faculty salaries.
Ninetieth Anniversary of the Linguistic Society of America: A Commemorative Symposium Saturday afternoon session, January 4, 2014 The LSA Linguistic Institutes Julia S. Falk La Jolla, California jsfalk@san.rr.com Surveys over the years have revealed that the members of the Linguistic Society of America consider the Linguistic Institutes to be the Society’s most important service to the profession, second only to the publication of Language (Linguistic Society of America Bulletin [hereafter Bul] 119, p. 3, 1988). Those who have participated know firsthand the spirit that makes Institutes so engaging and so warmly remembered. In Spring 1927, Reinhold Saleski – Professor of German at Bethany College in West Virginia – wrote to Roland Kent, Secretary of the Linguistic Society of America. Saleski proposed a Linguistic Institute for the summer of 1928. This “gathering of scholars for interchange of ideas” (Bul 2, p. 3, 1928) was modeled on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a summer program for research biologists under development at that time by the National Academy of Sciences (www.whoi.edu/main/history-legacy). Woods Hole had $2,500,000 in funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. The LSA budget balance was $799.36. It is not surprising that the Executive Committee was hesitant to embark on such a project. But Edgar Sturtevant was far from hesitant. Professor of Linguistics and Comparative Philology at Yale University, Sturtevant took up the idea and molded it into something very like the Linguistic Institutes we still have today. He broadened the scope to include both the “gathering of scholars” and the offering of course work. He gained a commitment from his university to provide facilities and to permit those who held the Ph.D. to attend at no charge. He developed a list of courses and promised 21 colleagues a teaching stipend of at least $250 each. And he successfully petitioned the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for $2,500 in support of these faculty salaries.