Lowering standards
Last we checked, the Honors Program was supposed to keep academic standards high.
The students in the program are, after all, the best and brightest this university has to offer.
So why lower academic standards?
Honors students soon will be able to take HON: 150 Racism in the American Experience, as opposed to taking six to eight credits of a foreign language.
The class is being offered this spring on a trial basis, and will be re-evaluated after the semester.
This alternative has sparked some foreign language professors alarmed, as it should.
If the Honors Program chooses to go this route permanently, it will lower academic standards.
Honors Program Director James Hill's argument for the new class is for students to take a culture class.
But a class about racism in America hardly exposes students to world cultures.
Racism is America is something all students should be educated in or have the opportunity to learn about while at CMU. And by the time they graduate, many students do. Substituting it for a learning a language is not the answer.
Perhaps Honors students will not use the foreign language they learn after college unless they go into certain fields. But what six to eight credits' worth of a foreign language does is immerse them in the culture. There is no better way of doing that than learning the language.
Plus, in today's society, it is becoming more essential to learn foreign languages.
And although they might not come to a point where they are fluent in the language, it does give them a base to work from.
There is little doubt that Honors students have a difficult academic regimen.
They have to complete more than 100 hours of community service, maintain a high grade-point average and complete a senior research project.
But does it make sense to eliminate a learning experience many students may not seek out any other time?
In today's world, knowing a foreign language is an edge, one that many American students never take advantage of. In fact, many would say the U.S. is playing catch-up when it comes to the global game.
Besides that, Hill himself said many Honors students already are taking the time to learn a second or third language.
Officials have repeatedly said that one of the university's goals is to produce more globally aware students. University President Michael Rao often touts studying abroad and making diversity part of more students' lives.
It would be difficult to prove that learning a foreign language doesn't fall into one of those categories.
And if the university's best are coming out of college without a foreign language base, it is a poor reflection of CMU.
