The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will vote this week on four proposed changes to undergraduate course requirements.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Language and Culture proposed changes that would allow students to count a single course for both the World Civilization and Culture Option requirements.
The Committee also recommended that the Language and Culture Option guidelines be changed to ensure that students have a more comprehensive understanding of the culture they choose to study.
Once students in the School of Arts and Sciences receive credit for three semesters of basic language study, they may complete their Language and Culture requirements by taking three higher-level classes in that same language, completing three semesters of a new language, or by taking three classes that focus on a single culture. The latter choice is known as the Culture Option.
According to Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator and junior Rafi Goldberg, the first proposal assures that one of the three courses taken to fulfill the Culture Option must focus on the region of origin.
"If a student takes Asian American culture for the Culture Option, for example, one of the three courses must deal with the culture of some part of Asia," he said.
Goldberg, who serves as a student member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Language and Culture, submitted a resolution to the TCU Senate that endorsed the proposed changes.
The second proposal would simply change the classification of American Sign Language (ASL) classes. ASL would no longer be part of the Culture Option and would instead be treated as a second language.
The third proposal would allow classes to count for both the World Civilization requirement and the Culture Option.
Goldberg noted that the already high overlap between World Civilization and the Culture Option gives justification for the change. "Eighty-five percent of classes that count for the World Civilizations requirement can also count towards the Culture Option," he said.
The World Civilization requirement change would go into effect for next fall, for the Class of 2006's final year, as prescribed by to the fourth proposal.
The changes for the Language and Culture Option would also begin next fall, and would first apply to the Class of 2009.
According to senior Wen Cai, who serves as a student member on the Ad Hoc Committee on Language and Culture, the committee was commissioned "to examine and update the 35 year-old World Civilization and Culture requirements."
"[Tufts] has gone through many changes in the last 35 years, but our requirements did not reflect the changing times and values," Cai said.
The TCU Senate passed Goldberg's resolution by a vote of 20-2-1 on Feb. 6.
"[Our] purpose is to send a message to the faculty that we strongly support the Committee's proposals," Goldberg said.
