On Sept. 13 faculty and staff at the University of Oregon’s American English Institute received notice that the department would be discontinued at the end of the academic year.

A termination letter obtained by the Daily Emerald said “academic reasons consistent with Article 25 of the UA CBA [United Academics Collective Bargaining Agreement]” were the reasons for the discontinuation and termination. 

Article 25 of the UA CBA is the “termination without cause for program elimination or reduction.” 

AEI, according to its website, is a department within the College of Arts and Sciences that “serves the educational mission of the University of Oregon through scholarship, English language instruction and English language professional training.”

In a statement to the Emerald, UO spokesperson Eric Howald said that the reason for AEI’s termination was that “enrollment of UO-matriculated international students has declined drastically over the past 10+ years, the structure of AEI is no longer an effective way to serve a much smaller number of students.”

Jennifer Rice is a senior instructor at AEI and has been with the department since 2009. 

According to Rice, there are several reasons for the decrease in international student enrollment. 

“We used to have an enormous population of international students who were coming here,” Rice said. “International students were almost 10% of the UO’s enrollment at one point within the past 12 years or so. A multitude of factors have plummeted international enrollments across the country; [President] Trump being elected, COVID[-19], the strength of the U.S. dollar… all of those things plummeted our enrollment numbers.”

According to Rice, the AEI department is split into three programs. The first is the Academic English for International Students program which, according to Rice, offers students enrolled in UO with basic English and academic support. 

The second program, according to Rice, is the Intensive English Program, which allows non-enrolled international students interested in attending college in English-speaking countries the ability to come to UO to build an “English foundation.” 

According to Rice, the third program is a teacher training course for educators from around the world who want to take professional development courses. 

The department was founded in 1978 and according to its website, it has been a leader in English language teaching, services and research both at UO and around the world.

Currently, AEI has six core faculty members and one staff member. 

The termination letter states that a single position has been made available to current AEI faculty to teach “a reduced offering of AEIS/GRST [Academic English for Graduate Students] courses.” 

Faculty were provided 30 days to apply, as said in the termination letter.

“We [as a core faculty] basically decided that one of us out of the seven needed it more than the others so nobody else applied, only [one person] applied,” Rice said.

Janine Sepulveda is a senior instructor at AEI and has been at UO for 28 years.

Both Rice and Sepulveda stressed that one position is not enough to continue what AEI currently does for UO.

“It’s really horrible in terms of pedagogy because it’s not wise to have one teacher teaching all the classes for all the international undergraduates,” Sepulveda said. “It’s very unethical because this position is not just one person teaching all of the classes, but that’s the same person doing all the administration and all the advising.”

According to Howald, once AEI is closed, UO students who need English language support may take classes through the Yamada Language Center, which supports foreign language study for UO students.

“We expect to serve approximately 40 UO international students per year with courses taught by Yamada instructors,” Howald stated. “In addition, the UO’s Global Education Program will offer intensive English program coursework for non-matriculated students beginning in September 2025.”

Sepulveda said that she feels the termination of AEI is “demoralizing.”

“We feel like the university doesn’t really value the expert services we provide that can enable our international students, who bring so much diversity to our campus, to be successful,” Sepulveda said.

For Riko Horiguchi, an international student from Japan, the closing of AEI will make studying internationally more challenging.

“AEI is a place where students can learn basic English, so if that’s closed, the hurdle for foreigners to study abroad will be raised. I feel that it will make it more difficult for international students to study abroad,” Horiguchi said. 

The discontinuation of AEI comes as UO pushes to boost international student enrollment after a steady decline in enrollment rates. 

The university partnered with Kaplan International in August 2024 with the hope of bringing in students from all over the world. 

According to its website, Kaplan International, a UK-based agency, helps the university recruit international students for undergraduate degrees by assisting students with the admissions process and promoting the university abroad.

Kaplan International is partnered with five universities in the United States, with UO being the only partnered school on the West Coast, according to its website.

The first cohort of students recruited through Kaplan International will arrive on campus for the 2025-2026 school year, according to the UO Admissions Office.

In an email, Rice stated that faculty and staff at AEI were unaware of the partnership with Kaplan International. 

The agency currently promotes AEI services, including the Intensive English Program, on its website that advertises why students should attend UO.  

Rice said she was disappointed at the “lack of coordination” between UO and their international partner.  

“I think it’s really, really sad that they’re still recruiting for international students and simultaneously cutting all the programs that support them,” Rice said. 

Sepulveda expressed dismay at what the university will be losing.  

“They’re losing the opportunity to enrich the UO student population by having all these great international students on campus,” Sepulveda said. 

For Sepulveda, the termination of AEI is “devastating” for international students who rely on the department’s services. 

“Imagine if you went to another country right now and you had to do everything in a different language and a different system and a different culture and they [students] are perfectly capable of learning those things but they need people who understand the shock they’re going through… that’s what we do,” Sepulveda said.

Rice stressed the importance of programs like AEI, which give international students a community and a place to be with people in similar situations to themselves.

“About half the students in my class this term don’t actually need to take my class,” Rice said. “They enrolled in my class because they want an international student community and the feeling of that small class connection with students who are experiencing a similar thing in their lives. Without our program, that goes away.”

For Horiguchi, the discontinuation of AEI means a loss of community.

“I feel that AEI is a place where teachers and students get along well and students can make new friendships with each other. Therefore, I am very sad that AEI will be closed because I feel like we will lose a place of community,” Horiguchi said.