text_combined: closing linguistics soas call help soas department phonetics linguistics closed october 1992 dear colleagues tuesday may 19 dr david bennett head department told would cease functioning october year department school oriental african studies university london members department dr david bennett prof thea bynon dr wynn chao dr monik charette dr katrina hayward dr richard hayward dr george hewitt dr bruce ingham prof jonathan kaye prof ruth kempson cross appointed africa department cross appointed near middle east department department offers degrees ba mphil phd level approximately 60 students mostly postgraduate level enrolled many students particularly university college london ucl take courses us run linguistics phonetics programme jointly ucl also english arabic applied linguistics translation together birbeck college programmes course affected decision department phonetics linguistics oldest linguistic department u k home london school received worldwide attention intellectual leadership prof jr firth chair occupy today first chair linguistics u k years graduates distinguished many areas linguistics later postings provide partial list well known soas graduates acknowledged even administration soas remain centre academic excellence field decision close soas linguistics department made consultation advanced warning result discussions governing body school finance general purposes committee management committee linguistic representation bodies reasons given closing department 1 severe budget cuts 2 low number undergraduate students 3 general perception department well integrated school stated among options considered closing department would cause least harm school one present represent linguistics side story decision presented academic board school wednesday may 27 academic board advisory role hoping mobilise school opinion decision unlike similar cases countries members department redeployed elsewhere school recent legislation virtually destroyed notion tenure u k many us facing premature retirement redundancy form severance agreement administration school seems feel easily find jobs terminating employment school cause us undue hardships given administration figures cost severing relation us offers likely receive school attractive statement forthcoming future school director stated meeting us individually next week keep posted aspect would like something try help us stop closing department please send order preference fax letter address fax number given possible use institution letterhead please feel free make comments department whole individual members whose work reputation familiar pass message along colleagues encourage write well feel inclined departmental resolutions reflecting opinion event would quite helpful hope able arrive next wednesday meeting armful letters copies letters sent director support lot improve spirits long difficult struggle department jobs careers thank advance listening support jonathan kaye professor general linguistics department phonetics linguistics school oriental african studies thornhaugh street russell square london wc1h 0xg u k email jk ukacrl earn jk uk ac rl ib janet fax number 44 71436 3844