“Why can’t I get a certificate in Spanish? “Why can’t I get a certificate in Arabic?” “Why can’t I get a certificate in Italian?” The list goes on and on. The fact of the matter is that no one has an answer, until now. In my personal experience and in talking to my peers, I have become extremely frustrated at the fact that this university, although highly ranked nationally, lacks something basic to our educational experience — the ability to receive a certificate (or minor) in a language.
The Associated Students of Madison (ASM) University Affairs Committee is currently working on a campaign to expand undergraduate language certificate options. Our goal is to create language certificates in all languages currently offered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently, most students are only eligible for language certificates in German and French, but students want more options.
Creating language certificates will benefit both the students and the departments. First, language certificates are a tangible form of recognition; a reward for many years of study. This recognition carries weight: receiving a language certificate from Madison is prestigious and demonstrates competency of culture and language to future employers.
Second, language certificates are complementary to other areas of study. Unfortunately, students find it hard to balance a language major with their primary major. With a language certificate, students will be able to find this balance and enjoy a more holistic education.
Language certificate expansion carries benefits not only for students, but for faculty and staff working for the language departments. Most important is the fact that language certificates create a boost in enrollment. Through an analysis of comparative enrollment data from the Office of the Registrar, it is clear that language certificates have substantially boosted enrollment numbers for departments with them.
Continuing on the topic of departmental benefits, the creation of language certificates will also ease students into the major. Students may see that once they have filled their certificate requirements that they are actually not far away from the major. To this effect, certificates work to eliminate students’ fears of higher-level classwork that comes with the major.
Finally, recent examples of language certificates offerings, such as German and French, have incurred no costs to create a certificate; the process is simple and relatively straightforward, according to German professor Rob Howell.
In a Qualtrics survey sent out to all undergraduates in November, 95 percent of the respondents said that they would be interested in pursuing a language certificate in the language of their choice. The top languages that students choose to pursue a certificate in were Spanish, Chinese, Italian and Arabic.
An important statistic to note is that 70 percent of the respondents indicated that they would be interested in receiving information about ways to create language certificates at UW. This is impressive, as students will willingly give their spare time to create a certificate in their language. Students’ desires to take matters into their own hands shows how important certificates are to our educational experience.
For these reasons, we believe language certificates are mutually beneficial for students and the language departments. While ASM is working to expand language certificate offerings, our strength as students is in numbers. If 95 percent of the student body wants a language certificate, it is a priority of the language departments as our educators to help students achieve this. We need to show that students support the creation of language certificates at UW. To make your voice heard and to make a difference for our university, please contact [email protected] to see how you can help.
Kate Wiedel ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and African Languages and Literature. She is also an intern at ASM.
