When the University of Southern California announced that it would shutter its tiny German department, the outcry was out of proportion to the handful of faculty members and students directly affected by the move. In addition to students who advertised their dismay on Facebook and faculty members who complained that their efforts to bolster the program came to naught, some outside observers argued that the decision weakened USC's intellectual fabric and its prestige. Administrators at the university cast the decision as a pragmatic response to declining enrollments (USC awarded five undergraduate degrees in German in 2007) and a dwindling staff (only two full-time professors remain).