The Diminishing Landscape of Federal Grants for Languages and Area Studies: The Shutdown and Uncertain Future of IFLE Grants

In recent years, language programs at universities nationwide have faced declining enrollments, reduced funding, and fewer faculty lines.The elimination of general education language requirements in some curricula, along with cuts to language minors and majors, has only compounded the struggles of our disciplines.The Modern Language Association's 2021 study revealed a decline in enrollment of 17% in language courses between 2016 and 2021 (Lusin et al., 2023).Although there has not been a more recent study, it is reasonable to assume that these declines have only accelerated in the past few years.The University of West Virginia provides one notable example of severe program cuts to languages and the humanities.In 2023, its administration decided to eliminate most of its language programs and faculty, receiving much negative publicity and criticism from the academic community nationwide (Bauer-Wolf, 2023).The reductions in language studies at many U.S. universities not only adversely affect the study of languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole, but also decrease the number of graduates proficient in these languages entering professional and service jobs.Additionally, these cutbacks and program eliminations affect area studies such as international studies and Latino studies.The humanities at large have received less attention at universities and have less access historically to both federal and private funding for research and programs.Many of these damaging changes have been emerging for years, or even decades, before the current political climate, and we, as faculty, have been fighting to assert our value to higher education's mission at large.This past year, a significant funding source,