Stephen Canfield does not agree with the Council on Academic Affairs ad-hoc committee’s recommendation to rescind the three-semester-hour foreign language requirement passed last spring.

Canfield, chair of the foreign languages department, proposed the change from two semester hours to three semester hours.

“There are a number of things that I think still need to be worked out,” he said.

to 4 p.m. today in the Arcola/Tuscola Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union to address people’s concerns with the foreign language requirement.

Last April, CAA passed the proposal, but Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, and President Bill Perry asked CAA to re-examine the proposal.

An ad-hoc committee was formed, and after research with various groups across campus, they recommended for CAA to rescind the changes made to the requirement.

Ross Gaddis, who transferred to Eastern from Lakeland Community College, said increasing the foreign language requirement would be detrimental to Eastern at this point.

“The chief reason I believe this is because, speaking for myself, foreign language requirements were a major consideration in my selection of a four-year university,” he said. “If Eastern had increased the foreign language requirement before I transferred here, it is entirely possible I might not be here today.”

Tammie Burns, a non-traditional student who transferred from Danville Area Community College, also thought raising the foreign language requirement was not a good idea.

“I am afraid this will have an impact on the number of non-traditional students who will enroll at EIU,” she said. “While learning a foreign language benefits a person, most older students have reached the point in their lives where they do not believe they have the ability to learn a foreign language and may not seek to further their education because of this requirement.”

When passed, the changes to the requirement were supposed to go into effect in Fall 2010.

“That was a two-year window that was supposed to be used to notify high school programs and community college programs and other constituencies that the requirement was changed, and if they wanted to meet the requirement before coming here then they should be advised appropriately,” Canfield said.

Canfield said he repeatedly told the ad-hoc committee and others that if the requirement were to stand, it would no longer need to go into effect in 2010.

“There would have to be an amendment to the original proposal,” he said. “I would have no objection to it being a three-year window if that would be sufficient to getting the info out and making the crunch a little easier.”

Canfield said at no time has anyone suggested the proposal be amended or changed in any way.

After CAA gets feedback on the committee’s recommendation, CAA will have a final discussion and vote on Dec. 4 whether to rescind the agenda item passed last spring or not, said Kathleen Bower, chair of CAA.

“So if we rescind that proposal, then the foreign language requirement would stay at six credits,” Bower said.

Bower has been on the council for five years, and CAA has never been asked to re-examine an issue.

Should CAA rescind the proposal, the council would like each academic program to see if its individual requirement should be increased.

“Foreign language is an appropriate support for some of our majors if not all, and we’d like them to take a good hard look at their majors to see if it would be appropriate to require more foreign language courses for each and every program,” Bower said.

Bower said she has no problem with each program changing requirements, if that is what they want.

“I think one of the problems that people saw with adding foreign language requirements to the university as a whole was that certain programs felt their students would have a difficult time accomplishing other requirements they have at the university,” Bower said.

After CAA votes on the new proposal, it will be sent to Perry and Lord for final approval.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.