By DAVID PALM and SAM YEM
As of fall 2009, all new students seeking an Associate of Arts (AA) degree at any of the City Colleges of Chicago are required to take eight credit hours of a foreign language. Students can take any language offered at any of the City Colleges and still earn credit towards their degree at their home college. “Your credits at any of the colleges is as good as gold here at one of the other colleges within our system,” said Pervez Rahman, vice president of Academic and Student Affairs at Truman College.
Truman College currently offers Spanish and French for foreign languages. Starting last spring, the Truman began offering Latin and the administration is hoping to add Arabic to the portfolio for Fall 2010, according to Rahman.
The College-Level Examination Program, or CLEP, exam exists for those students knowledgeable in French, German, or Spanish, according to the official site of the exam. By taking the exam students can earn credit for their language skills without having to take classes. The City Colleges are also looking for alternative means for students to show competency in foreign languages Rahman said.
Angela Henderson, vice chancellor of Academic Affairs for the City Colleges of Chicago, said the new foreign language requirement came into place as a result of the City Colleges’ Academic Re-Calibration Initiative. “This was a faculty initiative designed to propose changes in the curriculum that would bring City Colleges of Chicago to the forefront of nationwide best practices, and increase students’ exposure to globalization,” Henderson said in an email.
She also mentioned that the number of credits required for the AA degree will not change, meaning that the language courses will serve as electives for students, thus not adding additional cost for students’ education. “The foreign language requirement is not about revenue,” Henderson said. “It is about heightening the quality of the educational experience for the City Colleges of Chicago students to make them truly competitive in the global marketplace.”
According to Henderson, faculty and advisers were informed about the new requirement prior to the fall 2009 semester; however, one of our reporters seeking an AA degree was not informed about the requirement when registering for class from an adviser.
Yue Liu, an associate professor in Truman’s communications department, claims to only have heard about the new foreign language requirement from people talking among each other. When told about the apparent lack of knowledge of this requirement, Rahman seemed surprised and claimed that the policy is very clear and has been articulated to the admissions department. None of the many students approached by the reporters were aware of the new requirement; several were new students pursuing AA degrees.
This story originally appeared in the Truman College student newspaper, The Uptown Exchange, and has been modified slightly for a general news audience.
Print this article
