GWU: Critical languages satisfy no general curriculum requirements

[Stefan Pugh]

Disgraceful and short-sighted.  Please let us know if we can help in any meaningful way.


SPugh

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Robin <rrobin at GWU.EDU>
Date: Friday, April 16, 2010 5:33 pm
Subject: [SEELANGS] GWU: Critical languages satisfy no general curriculum requirements
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu

> The George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and 
> Sciencesvoted today to remove all lower-division foreign 
> language courses from the
> list of those that can satisfy general curriculum requirements. 
> This move,
> part of an overall curriculum overhaul that emphasizes critical 
> thinking,goes farther than the mere elimination of the foreign 
> language requirement.
> It says that students who are thinking about starting a new 
> foreign language
> cannot apply those courses any of the required general curriculum
> categories, including those that come under “oral 
> communication.” The
> faculty voted to allow only upper-division language courses to 
> qualify for
> that category. Some upper division foreign language courses can 
> also qualify
> as writing courses.
> 
> DISCOURAGEMENT FOR RUSSIAN AND OTHER CRITICAL LANGUAGES? Allowing
> upper-division foreign language courses to satisfy general curriculum
> requirements works for incoming students of Spanish and French, 
> many of whom
> can place into those courses. But students who place into first- or
> second-year Russian will be denied general curriculum credit 
> under the new
> rules. That’s a strange step backwards for a school with a strong
> international profile, located just three blocks from the State 
> Department.-- 
> Richard M. Robin, Ph.D.
> Director Russian Language Program
> The George Washington University
> Washington, DC 20052
> 202-994-7081
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Russkiy tekst v UTF-8
> 
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