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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Language GCR changes draw ire

The new general curriculum passed by faculty in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences last Friday eliminated the foreign language and culture requirement, causing some professors to question the University’s commitment to language education.

Under the old General Curriculum Requirements, CCAS students had to take six to eight hours of foreign language or foreign culture classes. The new requirements will not allow lower-level language courses to be counted toward requirements, as the new credits – dubbed G-PAC by University officials – focus on perspective, analysis and communication, CCAS Dean Peg Barratt said.

According to the resolution passed by the CCAS faculty, critical thinking is defined as the “analysis and evaluation of complex information” and “the formulation of logical arguments based on that analysis.” Lower-level language courses do not meet that definition, Barratt said. Students who take upper-level language courses will be able to receive G-PAC credit.

“These are particular skills that we expect upper-level courses will have. When we put our GW students out there, an employer or a graduate school will know [GW] means it when they say those students can do critical thinking,” Barratt said.

Young-Key Kim-Renaud, chair of the East Asian languages and literature department, said the G-PAC reform sends the wrong message and students who take introductory-level language classes should be given credit and respect under the new requirements.

“When you take that very first course the whole world opens in front of you. It is ridiculous to think only advanced-level students, because they read about this or that theory, are thinking critically,” Kim-Renaud said. “Language acquisition is a very high process-based activity. This is the basis of contemporary linguistics.”

Russian language program director Richard Robin said not offering G-PAC credit for lower-level foreign language courses may dissuade students from enrolling in those courses.

“It will discourage them from taking any of the languages that are classified by the government and our state department as critical need languages,” Robin said. “As a university that is front and center in dealing with the world of public affairs, being in the nation’s capital, that’s just insane.”

American studies professor Teresa Murphy, who chaired the task force commissioned to study GCRs, said she does not think this curriculum change will affect enrollment.

In response to the mixed reactions from language faculty, Associate Dean Paul Duff said curriculum reform tends to be contentious.

“The thing that is very striking to me about this reform is how little contention there was. It was very collegial, for the most part, and most people agreed,” Duff said. “I think a lot of that is because an awful lot of faculty had a role.”

Courses have yet to be approved for G-PAC. Subcommittees will meet in the fall to review potential courses and Murphy said she hopes to have offerings organized and authorized by the end of October. The new curriculum changes will affect students entering in the fall of 2011 and Barratt said the idea of allowing current students to use the new program has been discussed but no decisions were made.

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