Launch of FLAC delayed at least until spring 1998

The foreign languages program suffers from a lack of funding. A lack of funding has pushed back the official launch of the Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum program until spring 1998, according to members of the faculty involved. "The prospect of [FLAC courses] being offered in the fall is at this point fairly slim," said FLAC Committee Chairperson Roger Allen, an Arabic and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies professor. "[FLAC] has run up against serious budget problems," he said. "Everything else to be completed is up in the air and at a level beyond mine." The program -- announced as part of the University's Agenda for Excellence -- would consist of upper-level language courses taught in various departments throughout the University. A class on the history of Spain, for example, would be offered in Spanish and a Buddhist theology class in Chinese. But such courses would be additions to current offerings, Allen said, and would not eliminate other options for students who might want to study Buddhist theology in English. Originally, the program's organizers had expected funding from the 21st Century Project on Undergraduate Education, according to Penn Language Center Director Harold Schiffman. And Susan Albertine, an English Department visiting lecturer who also coordinates 21st Century Project activities for the Office of the Provost, said the project usually does fund programs related to the Agenda for Excellence. "We would expect to offer support for the first two or three years of any new program we fund," she said. But several FLAC Committee members said the money has been delayed. "We asked the provost to have something happen this fall," Schiffman said. "They asked us to produce a program and we produced it, and now there's nothing being done." Albertine said there are a few courses already in the curriculum that are equivalent to what FLAC proposes. French 213/313: "French for the Professions" and Spanish 215/225: "Spanish for the Professions," are two examples. But FLAC's organizers said they intended these "bridge" courses to serve as an intermediate stage of language instruction designed to carry students from proficiency to "FLAC-level" fluency. Without funds from the Provost's Office, the FLAC program is up in the air. "I thought the provost had money for this," Schiffman said. "We don't know what to do if he doesn't come up with the money." And Allen stressed the importance of prompt implementation of the program. "It's a question of losing the motivation and interest and ability to do it all," he said. As for alternate funding, Allen said the money could come from either the School of Arts and Sciences, a combination of 21st Century funds and other University-wide sources, or outside sources. But the fall semester's security measures "required massive amounts of money," Allen said. And the University's frequent purchases of real estate have been "tying down a lot of discretionary funds." "At least that's my pessimistic view," he said. "It still might turn around in the next few days or weeks."

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