On Wednesday, April 15 2026, Barnard’s decision to eliminate the position of John Wright, and the Slavic department at large, became public. Meet the three students behind the fight to keep him here.

Last week, Barnard announced that it would be eliminating the position of John Wright (GSAS ’05, GSAS ’08, GSAS ’11), a professor of Slavic Studies and the only current member of the department. This move comes at the heels of a variety of cuts made by Barnard in the past year, including the layoffs of 77 staff members over the summer. 

When discussing changes in staff makeup, the administration made a point to emphasize that it would not be laying off faculty members. At a student journalism roundtable last month, President Laura Rosenbury and Dean Rebecca Walkowitz repeated this sentiment, emphasizing that the firings would not extend to staff, focusing instead on expanding Barnard’s academic offerings, including with faculty. 

In a statement to Bwog, a Barnard spokesperson explained the reasoning behind this action. “Barnard has a single Slavic Studies major, and in Fall 2025, zero Barnard students were enrolled in the senior seminar. As is standard when a course or department is under enrolled, we are assessing student need and ways to support student interest going forward.” 

Some students disagree—when the news broke last week, Ava Lyon-Sereno (BC 26), sprung into action. On Wednesday night, Lyon-Sereno began to reach out to see what could be done to save Wright’s position, and contacted friends Clara Neilson-Papish (BC ’28) and Sophie Sorensen-Wald (BC ’27). Texting in their group chat made in Wright’s “Literature and Empire” class, called “John Wright’s #1 fans,” they began to coordinate a plan. 

Lyon-Sereno immediately made a Change.org petition, collecting signatures to show the “outpouring” of support for Wright. As of publishing this article, the petition has 775 signatures. She also emailed the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), whose Barnard chapter released a statement on Tuesday. They stated, “Barnard AAUP stands with our colleague Professor John Wright and all of the term faculty whose positions have not been renewed or have been eliminated.” On Thursday, the students flyered around campus, hoping to inform campus about these events, and collect signatures on their form. 

Lyon-Sereno, Sorensen-Wald, and Neilson-Papish only have good things to say about their professor. None of them are Slavic Studies majors, and yet they emphasized how Wright made Slavic texts accessible, to the point where each one of them took more than one class with him, despite it not aiding their own majors. They emphasized Wright’s ability to go above and beyond in every possible way for his students. For example, Lyon-Sereno wanted to submit her final paper for a Slavic studies journal, and Wright was happy to support. He offered her additional rounds of feedback and advice, leading to Lyon-Sereno being one of three people picked to be published in the journal. “His support and encouragement is always uplifting students, and always making them more curious and engaged,” Lyon-Sereno said. 

Neilson-Papish and Sorensen-Wald took “Women Writers of Eastern Europe” with Wright, which they believe was so enriching because of the extent Wright went to in order to make the class not only accessible, but women-oriented. “[It’s] a very Barnard-specific class,” Neilson-Papish emphasized, which is “easy to do wrong.” Instead, Wright went above and beyond, going as far as to bring his grandmother’s diary into the class, and translate a variety of texts for students to read and understand. 

Praise for Wright goes far beyond just current students. As a part of their push to save Wright, the students have been collecting testimonials, an idea which emerged when they saw all the comments on their change.org petition. The testimonials are from a variety of people across Barnard, Columbia, and even other academic institutions. SEAS alumna Margarita Eremeyev, (’09) an Applied Mathematics major, stated that, “Professor Wright embodies everything that a liberal arts education should strive to be. He is a Scholar par excellence. If universities start to discard their most brilliant educators, who will be left to carry the torch of scholarly work and mentorship?” 

This push goes beyond just John Wright, however. The students emphasized the general importance of having a Slavic Studies department at Barnard. While Columbia does have a Slavic Studies department, Wright’s classes seem to be uniquely interesting. As the only member of the Barnard side, his elimination leads to a pause on the entire department. Sorensen-Wald emphasized the way that Wright’s classes united everyone—she mentioned the amount of General Studies students she saw in that class, something she found less common in Barnard class. The girls also laughed about the “row of Columbia athletes” that would sit in the back of their class, because they had heard about Wright’s classes and wanted to take them. “He is bringing people to this side of the street,” Sorensen-Wald emphasized, something she believes is unique in any department, and especially necessary at Barnard.

Once again, this feeling is supported by more than just students. David Goldfarb, a former Slavic Studies professor at Barnard, echoes this sentiment. He wrote in testimonial, “Barnard’s Slavic Department is small but mighty, known for attracting very ambitious students who become leaders and disproportionately class valedictorians. It plays a vital role in concert with the Columbia Slavic Department, attracting students registered at Columbia to courses offered at Barnard, and Barnard Slavic faculty frequently contribute to Columbia’s graduate course offerings, helping Barnard satisfy its portion of the Columbia-Barnard corporate agreement.”

But what is the benefit of a Slavic Studies department? Aside from its growing popularity, with 86 students taking Wright’s class in the fall of 2025, his students emphasized the way he made “the canon” accessible. They acknowledged that many people feel as though Russian classics are cultural touchstones and unapproachable on their own, but feel compelled to have read books like Anna Karenina before they graduate. Wright, they say, made it a point to make these texts accessible—encouraging Russian-speaking students to read Russian copies of the text for the class. This goes beyond simply studying Slavic texts; to them, it is about immersing people in a canon that is central to the humanities. 

As their Change.org petition gained momentum, Lyon-Sereno emailed Barnard senior administration on Friday, asking for a meeting. Instead, she received a response from a different faculty member, which she described as “placating” her. “I think it is incredibly distasteful of higher admin, instead of addressing student concerns, to essentially deputize a faculty member…to essentially try to placate student concerns,” Lyon-Sereno said. “Specifically President Laura Rosenbury and Provost Rebecca Walkowitz…(this) makes it extremely easy for them to in one fell swoop get rid of an entire humanities department…that is a total disregard and disinvestment in the humanities.” 

In a comment to Bwog, a Barnard spokesperson disagreed, stating, “The study of world languages and cultures is central to the kind of broad, rigorous liberal arts education Barnard offers. Over the past two years, we have expanded offerings in French, Spanish, Italian, and German, and introduced courses for the first time in Chinese, Korean, and American Sign Language. This year alone, we are hiring 22 permanent faculty members across the disciplines, part of a deliberate shift towards permanent faculty appointments, a goal the AAUP has long championed and one we share.”

This movement has grown in the past week, and now the students have two specific requests. The first is for Wright to be put on a “Reappointment and Review,” or “R&R” track, in which he is reviewed every year, but given a 6-year contract with the college. The second is to more broadly support the Slavic Studies department. “The closure of the department is not a foregone conclusion,” Sorensen-Wald stated. They emphasized that this is something many people care about, and can therefore be saved. Their testimonials support this. “It seems extremely short sighted for the college instead to cut a popular program and a hardworking and beloved faculty member to save a few dollars, especially when expertise in the region is as important as ever,” says Bradley A. Gorski (GSAS ’18), a Russian Literature PhD. 

Ultimately, the students want to emphasize that this fight is not over. At a time in which a variety of humanities departments are shrinking all over the country, Sorensen-Wald says Barnard’s administration has an opportunity to “buck” this trend by “standing up for John Wright, standing up for Barnard Slavic, and standing up for the humanities in higher education.”

Image via Bwog Archives