The Status of Modern Greek Studies in Higher Education: A Case Study on the East Coast

Recent years have brought an increase in Modern Greek programs in the United States, including a growing number of endowed Chairs and Centers for Modern Greek Studies. Despite significant differences, this trend would seem consistent with the overall recovery and rise in foreign language enrollments in the United States. The program in Modern Greek at the University of Maryland is typical in some ways and atypical in others of such programs on the East Coast. It had a tentative beginning which was followed by a serious fund-raising campaign to establish an endowed chair in Hellenic Studies. Although this goal was not reached, the program in Modern Greek at the University of Maryland resisted retrenchment and even grew within its modest parameters, retaining its affiliation with the department of Classics, and relying heavily on the support of Greek-American and Greek donors. The deepening crisis in university funding has created an increasingly competitive environment in which the Modern Greek program at Maryland and similar programs elsewhere can survive mainly through the redoubled and customized efforts of private donors with close reference to specific institutional and departmental contexts and needs.