"As the language requirement is, one can satisfy that one-year requirement by making the grade of D minus," Flier says.

Yale requires that each student who has not passed out of the language requirement take two full years of a foreign language or complete a second-year level language course. SATII Achievement tests are not accepted for the purpose of exemption.

"If you take a second-year language at Yale, you do have functional capability in that language," says William J. Mahota, associate professor of Slavic languages at Yale. "I think that only one year will not serve you well in the future. I don't think after one year anybody can be functional in another culture."

Princeton requires undergraduates to take three semesters of Spanish, French or Italian or four semesters of German, Latin or a non-European language.

In order to be exempted from the Princeton language requirement, a student must obtain a score of four on the AP or 740 on the Achievement exam, fully 140 points higher than the Harvard cut-off level.

"To me, it seems students cannot really learn a language in one year," says Fiorenza A. Wineapple, senior lecturer in Italian at Princeton. "The students that don't like languages will suffer through one year of language, and the students who excel at languages will not benefit because they will not get enough opportunity to learn that language fully."

But Wineapple warns Harvard language professors not to act too rashly in making the language requirement more stringent. "I'm not convinced more is better all the time," she says.

According to one foreign language administrator at Dartmouth University, students there must take three quarter-terms of a foreign language unless they score a 690 on the Achievement or a four on the AP exam.

Moreover, Dartmouth language students must go to either three or four one-hour "drill sessions" every week in addition to their regular language classes.

Despite more stringent requirements elsewhere, Harvard language professors say they are not convinced that strengthening the language requirement here is the proper way to place the College on par with other Ivies.

"Whether simply raising the language requirement would meet our goal is highly questionable," says Professor of Chinese History Peter K. Bol. "To teach all students a language so they would never forget it would probably require more time than can be expected. To raise the requirements of students who are there against their will is not what any language teacher wants."

Thomas says the language requirement now "will probably not change greatly."

"I agree completely that one shouldn't simply lay on more requirements," Thomas says. "But the general universal belief among the College is that the language requirement is a good thing."

But students say they oppose increasing requirements.

Katherine J. Evans '97, a joint English and Music concentrator, passed out of the language requirement with the French Achievement test and took Italian towards her concentration as a junior.