Students in Michael Aidelo’s Modern Adëlian language class can forget everything they learned this semester, before summer even starts.

“I feel a little cheated,” says March Renfro, a sophomore Biology major who had been trying to fulfill his language requirement with Aidelo’s class. The Blue Book describes AD 125b as “providing students with an introduction to Modern Adëlian syntax and vocabulary, with a particular emphasis on spontaneous oral expression.”

It might just do that, but Adël, or perhaps Adëlia, and especially Adëlian, don’t exist. It seems that Profesor Emeritus Aidelo, who the department chair admitted last week was “quite senile,” made the whole thing up. Long known in his field for the brilliantly inventive interpretations he brought to ancient texts, Aidelo has apparently lost the ability to distinguish between truth and fantasy.

Many of the students, who were all failing, expressed intense frustration over what had happened. One student complained, “I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve been up at 4 am, memorizing forms and exceptions, and now I find out it’s all gibberish! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget all 13 declensions.”

Even Erica Carlyle, who had been petitioning the DUS to allow her to pursue an Adëlian focus in the major, admits she had doubts early on. “Sure, I was a little suspicious when the instructor announced in the third week of the course that the verb ‘to be’ had changed, but I figured it was my fault for taking a living language.”

Renfro, at least, is optimistic about his possibilities for fulfilling his language requirement. “I took a little Greek in high school, I think I’ll transfer into that. I just want to be able to travel, you know…and talk to Classics majors in other countries.”

Aside from the fictitious language, students gave Aidelo high marks for enthusiasm and knowledge of the material. The workload was heavy, but eight out of twelve of those surveyed said they would recommend the course to their friends.

Aidelo declined to comment in English for this article.

—I. Dallas, ’00