Last week, I wrote about one of the greatest contributors to rising tuition at public universities across the country: decreased funding from state legislatures. And while draconian cuts to Wisconsin’s public universities are undoubtedly bad for the state’s future, decreased funding seems to be the new normal. Like other state legislatures, Wisconsin has cut funding to education to remedy budget deficits. But the cuts aren’t just the result of a severe and protracted recession—decreased state funding is decades in the making.
Despite cuts in funding, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has remained committed to maintaining its status as one of the best public universities in the nation. But the result has been rising tuition, with more tuition increases sure to come. University administrators have made tough decisions about cost-saving measures and worked to preserve the university’s reputation. But they have also been woefully unresponsive to the new climate of decreased state funding for higher education.
As a result of the tuition increases over the past few decades, the cost of attendance at UW-Madison is about half of the state’s median household income, meaning fewer and fewer students will be able to afford going to school here.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently reported, “For the entering class of 2005—the most recent available—53 percent of those enrolled at UW-Madison graduated in four years.” As in pretty much every other respect, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s graduation rate is better than the University of Minnesota’s 47 percent, four-year graduation rate. And nationally, only 56 percent of college students graduate within six years. With rising tuition and a 53 percent four-year graduation rate, though, many Wisconsin students will shell out well over $100,000, in tuition and living expenses, to receive their degree here.
Unfortunately, with rising tuition, the university has failed to adapt its degree requirements to help students graduate in four years or make them more competitive on the job market. Fortunately, I’ve got a good place to start: the foreign language requirement. Presently, students seeking a bachelor of arts degree are required to take four semesters of a foreign language, or 16 credits—an entire semester of classes worth. Students seeking a bachelor of science degree are a little bit luckier, needing just three semester’s worth, but it’s still an onerous requirement.
The foreign language requirement is well intentioned: Foreign languages are useful and they’re good résumé builders. But for bachelor of arts students, myself included, they don’t make much sense—at least not at their current level. After four semesters of Spanish—my foreign language of choice—I will have paid over $10,000 in tuition, I’ll probably speak somewhere below the level of a native Spanish speaking fifth grader and I will have certainly forgotten the vast majority of the language I learned within just a decade of graduation. Not to mention the fact that languages are notoriously hard at UW; I’ve heard of numerous advisors telling their students that fulfilling the language requirement at another university is a prudent academic strategy, as to avoid lowering their grade point average.
The four-semester requirement for bachelor of arts students should be scaled back to just two semesters, with the university refocusing its attention to a more critical degree requirement and skill: the ability to communicate—in English. Currently, the university requires just two communications classes: communications part A and communications part B. But in various surveys, employers rank the ability to communicate well, both verbally and in writing, as one of the most important skills in prospective employees, more important even than a applicant’s grade point average or what school they attended. Obviously, a refocused language requirement would do little—okay nothing—to help students graduate faster.
However, a refocused language requirement would at least make UW students more attractive to prospective employers in an increasingly competitive job market. The university’s language requirement is an integral component to the school’s liberal arts degree. But it’s also onerous, and the university must refocus its attention to better serve its students.
Mike is a freshman majoring in political science. Do you agree that the language requirement should be lowered? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
