A resolution was passed unanimously by Student Senate on Tuesday night urging UF's administration to save the Korean and Vietnamese programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The programs will be eliminated in May.
Seven students who will be personally affected by the program cuts stopped by to ask senators for their support.
Gator Party Sen. Megan Vu, the author of the resolution, said UF is currently the only university in Florida that offers these programs. She said the diversity of UF's Student Body and faculty will decrease once these classes are cut.
Two professors will lose their jobs as a result, she said.
Vu said UF first decided to cut the programs in June after a $47 million budget cut was made across Florida's state universities, adding that students and teachers protested in response to the programs' eliminations.
She said Joe Glover, then-interim dean of CLAS, was unresponsive to their complaints.
Vu said she met with current CLAS Dean Paul D'Anieri during fall to discuss other options that could be taken and to ask why the programs were cut.
"The answer he gave me was vague and unclear," she said.
Vu said she does not expect the resolution to produce magic results.
"It's highly unlikely they'll overturn their decision and there will suddenly be money," she said. "I just hope there will be open discussion and they will take students seriously."
Still, Vu said she was encouraged by senators' enthusiastic support of the resolution.
"It's been a long day of campaigning, but we still have the heart to come and work toward important issues," she said.
