The Associated Students of Madison University Affairs Committee is working to create more language certificate options for UW-Madison students and continued campaign planning at its meeting Tuesday.
Currently, German and French are the only languages offered as certificates. Spanish is also available, but only through admittance into the business school.
Other certificate options include various languages, but only when combined with additional material such as culture studies or literature.
“What is the tradeoff between offering a certificate? What are departments giving up?” University Affairs Committee Chair John Paetsch said. “We saw that the benefits of creating a certificate would significantly out lay any costs incurred by students and departments.”
University Affairs Committee Intern Kate Wiedel said she and fellow ASM members have created a survey to distribute campus wide to see how many students are interested in a language certificate.
While some departments are in complete support of creating language certifications, others are still “iffy” Wiedel said. ASM members hope to work directly with the language department heads, using the survey feedback as support.
The next step involves interacting with foreign language based student organizations on campus to encourage them to write letters to their respective language departments.
Paetsch encouraged students who are currently in a language class to voice their wish for a certificate. He said past certificates were created through a chain effect as students suggested it to faculty members, who recommended it to department heads.
While committee members said they hope to see more individual language certificates form soon, there is no established timeline.
