"If I had been required to take it as a freshman, I would have resented it," Evans says. "In the general scheme of American life, I think we should all know foreign languages better, but I also think that people have different academic requirements and paths that don't always make that possible."

Farbood echoed the sentiments of manystudents: "If it was a requirement, they'd be making you do something. I've never been a fan of requirements."

Broadening the Core?

For the last four years, an informal consortium of directors of language instruction has been meeting regularly to discuss issues of language instruction."

On May 28, members of the consortium met with a number of department chairs in what Nagy referred to as a "Foreign Language Summit."

Flier termed the consensus at the summit "remarkable," but attendees said they were no closer to an exact plan.

"The fact that this meeting was held shows that consensus is possible," Frommer says.

One plan that appears to have widespread support among the Faculty is the notion of integrating courses taught in foreign languages into other concentrations and Core requirements so that they do not infringe on electives.

"It might be better to leave the language requirement as it is and then make it possible to fulfill the foreign cultures requirement by taking a second year language course," Asani says.

This concept might fit well into the Core reforms passed by the Faculty on May 20, which opened the possibility of non-introductory courses in the Core as well as recommending greater flexibility in determining what a Core course can be.

Thomas expresses a similar view: "There may be more creative ways of encouraging students to do language courses," he says. "If someone were a science major, there might be some curricular incentive to do an advanced French literature course."

For now, Faculty seem reluctant to stress concrete requirements, preferring instead to discuss the merits of an enriched language curriculum.

"I don't want to be part of telling students when to stop studying languages. I don't want to draw the top line," Gaylord says.

Nagy says that languages are important to study because they have a definite effect on people's lives.

"Language has given me a different life because I can see everything in the universe in a different way by immersing myself in languages," he says. "How will an extra year of elementary language improve one's mind? I would say that's just a start."