The Role of the Regional Modern Language Associations

THE ROLE OF THE REGIONAL MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATIONS Communication is a crucial problem in higher education today. As the student body grows from five to ten million, as the number of college teachers of English and the modern foreign languages grows from an estimated forty thousand to eighty, as institutions proliferate, any sense of identity tends to be submerged. For more than eight decades the MLA has provided a sense of "belonging " to nearly half the college teachers of English and the modern languages in the United States. We trust that it will continue to do so. But as this half grows inexorably from twenty toward forty thousand, new units must be discovered. We do not believe that such units should be created by separating English professors from those in the other modern languages, or by separating those in various foreign languages from one another. Rather we believe that the next logical step is to strengthen the regional MLAs so that they can supplement the work of the national Association. The MLA is working diligently to create a situation in which the regionale can flourish. It applauds the membership drives that the regional associations are undertaking this spring and the plans they are making for their bulletins and other professional services. We hope that the regional associations will come to mirror the aspirations and achievements of individuals and institutions in their regions just as the MLA tries to mirror the community of scholars nationally. Don't drop your membership in MLA, but please join RM-MLA. Both represent valuable kinds of opportunities and obligations in our expanding profession. John Hurt Fisher Executive Secretary Modern Language Association The 21st Annual Meeting of RM-MLA will be held in Albuquerque 13-14 October at the invitation of The University of New Mexico Offers of papers to be given at the meeting should be made at once to the appropriate chairmen as listed in the December Bulletin, page 11 (see correction of one address on page 7 of this issue). 27 ...