“What was really cool about it for me was that Arabic cultures and Middle Eastern cultures are very negatively portrayed in American media and American culture,” Daly said. “It was nice to learn more about a culture that I had never gotten to see in a positive light, especially growing up in a state like Kentucky.”

The four Arabic courses this year – except Intermediate Arabic I – will be taught online. Gillespie is taking an online course that was the only one to fit his schedule, choosing between Arabic courses that were only available at specific times.

“It definitely won’t be the same,” Gillespie said. “I think they’re trying to accommodate us. I don’t want to say the best that they can, because I feel like there could have been more done. But we’re getting classes and it’s like a ‘now or never’ type thing […] I’m still excited, because there’s a new teacher and a new Fulbright [assistant], but I just know that, at the same time, there’s a little bit of, ‘this is the last of it’.”

The U.S. Department of State classifies Arabic as a category IV “super-hard language” for English speakers to learn. Gillespie said language learning is a subject not compatible with the online format.

“It’s not what anyone wanted, especially after going through it once,” Gillespie said. “But at the same time, we’re used to it now. For language, it’s really critical that you use output and input. I feel like you’re just losing out on the output part, whenever it’s online […] It does suck, but like I said, we’re used to it.”

Meghan Pierce, a junior Arabic and international affairs major, was able to complete the requirements for her Arabic degree last spring and studied abroad in Jordan this past summer. Despite this, Pierce still experienced the uncertainty of the major’s future.

“I remember the last month, especially in the last two weeks, I felt like there was such a tonal dissonance between how the school was presenting how they cared about the Arabic program versus what they were actually doing,” Pierce said. “I remember having that display from the Qatar Foundation in the Honors College and actually having representatives from it come, and it being a celebration about the university’s commitment to Arabic and our ties with promoting education to the Middle East.

Then, three weeks later, they inform people that they’re cutting the program. It was just very difficult and made a lot of people and a lot of students in the program upset.”

DiMeo said while difficult, students completing their degrees online was “the only option that was there, really.”

“I know Dr. [Alexander] Poole looked at all the options, and it was probably very difficult to even get that,” DiMeo said. “Obviously, no one could compare online language instruction with in person. With some subjects, you could, but obviously, with language, you can’t […] but I would stress that I know it’s the best option the university has available, so I don’t fault them for that.”

When the suspension ultimately came, DiMeo said it was not a surprise. “This was obviously what was going to happen,” DiMeo said. “We were told in pretty strong terms, not to share that with students, not to cause a panic, which I think was a bad and probably unconscionable decision, but that’s what we did.”

Terrance Brown, dean of Potter College of Arts and Letters was approached for a statement regarding DiMeo’s comment.