Faculty and staff members within the English department are voting this month on a proposal for linguistics faculty and staff to split from the English department and form a separate linguistics department.

Currently, students studying linguistics are part of the Teaching English as a Second Language/Applied Linguistics program.

Charles Kostelnick, professor and chairman of English, said the department first considered the change in March 2007.

“It’s not something we just talk about, vote on and then change,” Kostelnick said. “We have had a lot of deliberation and consideration and discussion.”

The idea for the division originally came from a team of professors from other colleges conducting an external review of the English department, which is a common practice every three or four years.

“English is more of a humanities department, and linguistics is more of a social science. That’s the fundamental difference,” said Dan Douglas, professor of English and program coordinator of the TESL/Applied Linguistics program. “One advantage of forming our own department is we could align ourselves closer to other social sciences departments.”

Faculty and staff voting on the proposal have to vote on two factors – whether to split with the English department and whether to approve the implementation plan.

“The Faculty Senate has rules about procedures for forming new departments,” Douglas said. “There has to be a proposal for the new department – reasons for having the new department – and there has to be an implementation plan.”

If the proposal is approved, the linguistics department would be headquartered in Carver Hall, leaving vacancies in Ross Hall and reducing funding for the English department.

The TESL/Applied Linguistics program is made up of nine professors and five lecturers. The program has about 36 undergraduates, 25 master’s students and 15 Ph.D. students. Douglas said he expects to see the number of undergraduate students grow to about 90 students within the department’s first couple of years if the proposal passes.

Departmental voting will be completed Jan. 25, and the results will then be reviewed by the Faculty Senate.