College of Letters and Science Faculty Document No. 701
April 7, 2004

Recommendation:

That the following language be substituted in Fac. Doc. 677 (Proposal to Modify L&S Degree Requirements) for the current foreign language requirement proposal:

For the B.S. degree, the foreign language requirement may be met by successful completion of the second semester of college work in a language other than English or equivalent.

For the B.A. degree, the foreign language requirement may be met in one of two ways: (1) successful completion of the fourth semester of college work in one language other than English or equivalent or (2) successful completion of the third semester of college work in one language other than English PLUS the second semester of college work in another language other than English or equivalent.

Implementation

• For purposes of this requirement, American Sign Language (ASL) counts as a language other than English.
• Students who place beyond the required semester level on the UW System Foreign Language Placement Test meet the requirement. In order to continue their studies in the same language, students with two or more years of a foreign language in high school must take the placement exam.
• Successful completion of two, three or four years of high school foreign language is accepted as the equivalent of two, three or four semesters of college work, respectively.
• Students may demonstrate, on a UWM-administered exam, a proficiency level equivalent to that obtained after completion of the required number of semesters, if there is a current UWM faculty or staff member qualified to administer the examination and evaluate proficiency in the language (no degree credits are earned for this examination).
• Graduation from a non-U.S. high school where the language of instruction is not English satisfies the foreign language requirement.