After a year of discussion, the Faculty Executive Committee voted on May 14 to retain the language requirement. The committee is now looking for new ways to cut and prioritize curriculum to match budgetary constraints.
Departments will work to further publicize the language placement test, allowing increased opportunities for students to pass out of the requirement if they have attained a competency level equivalent to three quarters of college-level language.
“We will still be seeking the same standard but will hope for a more aggressive test ““ one that is offered more regularly,” said Raymond Knapp, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee.
While the language requirement will not be cut, the committee must continue to make cuts to other lower-division requirements. In the May 14 meeting, the committee ratified a proposal to modify the science General Education requirement for two years, beginning with the class of 2013. The proposal will move on to the entire Undergraduate Council June 4, when the final decision will be made.
The temporary science GE change would reduce the number of required courses from four to three, with only one lab course required.
“The reductions in the budget made it a challenge to provide all undergraduate students with a lab component for science in both life and physical sciences,” said Richard Weiss, co-chair of the Curriculum Committee for the Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate. “It’s also been very expensive to run lab facilities.”
During the two-year suspension period, science departments will work to define the goal of the science GE and modify it to increase its scope, said Weiss, also a chemistry and biochemistry professor.
According to Weiss, current science GE courses are developed by smaller science departments, while larger departments, including chemistry and physics, do not have general courses specifically catered to non-major students.
The goal of the two-year suspension is to create a more relevant science GE that will reach a greater portion of students and promote scientific literacy among non-science students, Weiss said.
“In our society today, many choices we make are based on scientific information and knowledge, and we’re concerned that (students) don’t have sufficient scientific background to fully appreciate the sides of a question relative to the decisions being made,” he said.
The reduction was proposed when Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Judith Smith suggested restructuring and prioritizing lower-division requirements to cater to a changing university student body.
When the Faculty Executive Committee first suggested suspension of the language requirement, it was met with letters, presentations and a generally negative response from both the language departments and those of other academic divisions, including those in South Campus, Knapp said.
“There were some suggestions that it was less important for South Campus students to know languages, but we had South Campus people in the committee, and they said it was of practical value,” Knapp said.
Though the challenges continue within the science divisions, the difficulties within the language departments have been temporarily laid to rest, said Elissa Tognozzi, Italian senior lecturer.
“It’s been a hard year ““ a lot of time, effort and emotions, but it was well-spent,” Tognozzi said. “That speaks to the integrity of the UCLA curriculum, that instead of dumbing down and reducing, we are valuing what we need to do well.”