Clarifying the Foreign-Language Requirements at Oklahoma State University
I appreciated your recent article on the rise in foreign-language enrollments across the United States (“Rise in Foreign-Language Enrollments Spurs Teacher Shortage,” Education Week, Sept. 12, 1984). However, as a member of the faculty and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma State University--a college that has probably done more than any other single unit in the state of Oklahoma to raise language awareness--I feel called upon to correct an error.
It is the College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, not the University of Oklahoma in Norman, that has announced that freshmen entering in September 1986 must either have two years of foreign-language training in high school or take more than 10 hours of language instruction at the university to qualify for a B.S. degree.
In addition, this college has always maintained a requirement of 10 hours of foreign-language instruction at the university level for a B.A. degree. At this time, there is no other academic unit in the state of Oklahoma that requires a foreign language for graduation or matriculation.
I should also like to point out that the college is working with the State Board of Education and public-school teachers around the state to provide television delivery of foreign-language instruction via satellite. We feel that this has considerable potential, not just in the foreign languages, but in other areas such as science and mathematics where an acute shortage of teachers exists.
Smith L. Holt Dean College of Arts and Sciences Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Okla.
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