 "Photo: Erik Reyna/The Daily Texan")
Though proposals to change the foreign language curriculum requirements were dropped two weeks ago, UT administrators listened as students expressed their opinions on language requirements Tuesday evening.
The Liberal Arts Council and Senate of College Councils hosted a forum that provided students with the first opportunity to voice their opinions on the proposed changes. Of the more than 100 students in attendance, nearly 20 posed their concerns, comments and questions to liberal arts Dean Randy Diehl, associate deans Richard Flores, Marc Musick and Esther Raizen, Spanish and Portuguese language program director Rafael Salaberry and professors from the college.
“We’re the ones in the classroom, and our voices have been noticeably absent up until this point,” said Mykel Estes, Liberal Arts Council president. “There’s been a lot of confusion and not a lot of transparency to the students.”
The proposed changes would have reduced the number of required foreign language hours from 16 to 12 and would have taken effect for the 2010 incoming freshmen class.
The deadline for changes to the 2010-12 catalog passed before the changes were approved, but the college is still accepting input on the changes for future catalogs.
Because the proposals were dropped, the requirements will remain the same, and individual departments within the college are being asked to reallocate approximately $10 million to pay for debt service on the new liberal arts building and faculty salaries.
Last month, the administration proposed a curriculum in which students would take two six-hour classes to complete their language requirements, and department chairs negotiated for a plan that would require one six-hour course followed by two three-hour courses.
Graduate students who instruct courses each teach two sections. Last fall, it cost more than $1 million to fund lower-division Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German courses, which cost $5,000 per section. But next year, assistant instructors will teach only one section, increasing the cost of each section to an estimated $7,500, Musick said.
The fall 2010 foreign language budget is less than $1.3 million. Without the changes, the total cost will rise to more than $1.5 million, leaving the remaining budget at nearly $250,000 in debt. Increasing the number of students in each section to 20 from 25 will still leave the budget at more than $50,000 in debt.
The proposed 6-6 model with an average of 20 students in each section would leave more than $500,000 remaining in the budget and with 25 students would leave more than $650,000 remaining. The 6-3-3 model with 20 students in each section would leave more than $100,000 remaining in the budget and with 25 students would leave more than $350,000 remaining.
“If we don’t do anything, you can see that [the remaining budget] is negative,” Musick said. “There isn’t enough budget for these three departments to do that. The money is literally not there. Something has to change. We can’t go with the status quo. Now it’s up to the departments to figure out how with the money they have available to meet their demands.”
Government senior Chad Stanton said he was in favor of the changes.
“A lot of students don’t even take the foreign language classes at UT,” he said. “They go to [Austin Community College] because the classes there aren’t as challenging as they are at UT, so they’re getting a subpar education. People treat [the languagerequirements] as a task, a four-semester hurdle. I’m probably going to have a better chance of learning something if I’m [in class] for six hours.”
Biology senior Zach Farhood said he is against adjustments.
“I don’t think downsizing the program will help students to become more proficient any better,” Farhood said. “I think it’ll actually deter them from becoming proficient. If anything, we should have more classes so they’d have more time to speak and practice.”
Diehl said the issue has generated a lot of interest and that he appreciated the input.
“My own view,” Diehl said, “is the College of Liberal Arts is fundamentally about the study of culture, and language is the key to the study of culture and is indispensable to the study of liberal arts.”
