The Student Government Association wants to bring Mandarin Chinese and Arabic courses to campus.

“In my opinion, a school has to have these languages to be competitive,” said Jessica O’Higgins, White Lake senior and SGA senator.

O’Higgins said Western Michigan University offers an abundance of foreign language classes in comparison to CMU, including Arabic and Chinese.

The resolutions for both languages ask that courses to be offered up to and beyond the 202 level of study, that they be recognized as fulfilling the University Program requirements and that they be made available in consecutive semesters by this fall.

O’Higgins said she contacted students within and outside of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences and found support for the classes.

James Jones, Foreign Languages, Literatures & Cultures chair, said bringing Chinese back to CMU is a possibility, because the course already exists. Chinese was offered for one and a half years about four years ago because of an exchange. However, the class was canceled because of budget cuts.

Arabic is another story.

O’Higgins said the biggest concern is trying to find a teacher for the course. However, she said she spoke with officials from the University of Michigan and they said they graduate 15-20 Ph.D . students every year completing with degrees in Arabic.

“The teachers do exist and the pool to draw from is increasing,” she said.

However, Jones said there is nowhere near enough people to take the jobs. The university would have to find someone to create and teach Arabic courses, he said.

“Every top university in this country are looking tenure track to teach Arabic,” Jones said.

Jones said studying non-western languages takes longer because students learn numerous symbols.

“Students don’t realize any non-western language takes a much longer time to achieve proficiency in,” Jones said.

Both the House and Senate also approved the career preparation act. This act advises the Academic Senate to implement elective courses in minor and major programs to prepare students for graduate school entry exams and professional certifications.

Royal Oak junior and SGA senator Matt Bush said such exams and certifications the courses could cover include the Graduate Record Examination, Graduate Management Admission Test, Medical College Admission Test and the Law School Admission Test.

Bush said the resolution most likely will be put on the backburner until the fall.

“I really don’t think it’ll have a chance this semester,” Bush said. “But we at least gave the new administration something to work on.”

Bush said CMU would be a champion compared to other universities in implementing these courses.

“It’s all about giving students the opportunities,” Bush said. “Making our students competitive in the national playground.”

ddefever@cm-life.com

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