The Daily Bulletin

At its May 12, 2023, meeting, the College Senate voted to recommend the following resolution to the president for consideration:

Resolution on the Implementation of the World Languages General Education Requirement within Degree Works

WHEREAS, one legitimate interest and aspiration that a student might have is to become proficient in one or more world languages; and

WHEREAS, one way in which students might signal an interest in or aspiration to become proficient in one or more world languages is to have taken world languages in high school; and

WHEREAS, the GE23 general education program is designed to provide students with options that allow them to choose general education courses that are in line with their interests and aspirations; and

WHEREAS, the GE23 general education program does provide students with the option for developing proficiency in one or more world languages by taking up to 12 credit hours of world languages as part of their general education at Buffalo State; and

WHEREAS, conversations with faculty and staff advisors are central to helping students identify and pursue their interests and aspirations; and

WHEREAS, students and advisors alike rely heavily on Degree Works during thought about and conversations pertaining to registration decisions; and

WHEREAS, having a box ticked in Degree Works usually indicates to a student or advisor that a requirement is complete; and

WHEREAS, students and advisors spend much less time thinking about and discussing completed requirements than requirements that still need to be completed; and

WHEREAS, a student’s completion of at least one year of world language study in high school is currently sufficient to mark the GE23 world languages requirement as complete in Degree Works; and

WHEREAS, having the world languages requirement marked as complete in Degree Works makes it less likely that students will be prompted to consider world language options at Buffalo State, which has the potential to harm those students who, if prompted, would have an interest in or aspiration to develop proficiency in one or more world languages; and

WHEREAS, the current implementation of the world languages component of the GE23 general education program hinders students and advisors from recognizing the world languages options available to them at Buffalo State; and

WHEREAS, the current implementation of the GE23 general education program singles out world languages as the only GE23 category that can be completed through study of regular high school classes (as opposed to, for example, AP high school classes that are designed to offer college-like experience in high school); and

WHEREAS, because of the impact that the current Degree Works implementation of the world languages requirement will likely have on advisement, world language courses are placed at a systematic disadvantage when compared with GE23 courses in other non-required categories, i.e., Humanities, the Arts, U.S. History and Civic Engagement, Social Sciences, and World History and Global Awareness, in terms of recruiting students into these classes; and

WHEREAS, the current implementation of the world languages component of the GE23 general education program does not significantly benefit students because (i) they are not given Buffalo State credit for their study of a world language in high school, and (ii) they are still required to complete as many non-required credit hours within GE23 as they would be were the GE23 world language requirement not waived; and

WHEREAS, the world language advisement needs of faculty, staff, and students are not well served by the current Degree Works implementation of the world languages component of GE23, because students might take multiple world languages as components of their high school education or their Buffalo State general education (e.g., CHI 101, FRE 101, ITA 101, and SLP 101), and students who took different amounts of a world language in high school should be guided by advisors to take different levels of that world language at Buffalo State (e.g., students who have studied four years of Spanish in high school should be guided to take SPA 201 as their first Buffalo State Spanish class rather than SPA 101 or SPA 102); and

WHEREAS, the current implementation of the world languages component of the GE23 general education program in Degree Works is a result of Buffalo State’s decision to grant SUNY World Language waivers to students who have engaged in one year of study of a world language in high school; and

WHEREAS, the granting of SUNY World Language waivers to students who have engaged in one year of study of a world language in high school is a carryover from a time at which the waiver reduced the number of credit hours that students needed to take as part of the Buffalo State general education program, which is no longer the case under GE23 and so no longer offers a benefit to students; and

WHEREAS, both the above-mentioned potential harm to students and above-mentioned systematic disadvantage to world language courses are consequences of the current implementation of GE23 in Degree Works, which is itself a consequence of an outdated carryover of granting SUNY World Language waivers to students who have engaged in one year of study of a world language in high school,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Buffalo State not grant SUNY World Language waivers to students who have engaged in one year of study of a world language in high school; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that information be provided at the top of each student’s Degree Works audit sheet, near where test scores are listed, about which world languages the student studied in high school and for how many years the student studied each of those languages so that advisors may be aware of each student’s potential interest in world languages and use this information to appropriately guide their advisees into appropriate world language courses; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that systematic guidance be developed that can be shared with students and advisors to help them decide which world language courses are appropriate given a student’s current proficiency in one or more world language.

I thank the College Senate for this comprehensive analysis on the importance of clear direction and guidance in Degree Works for all general education requirements. The checkbox in the Language Section of Degree Works was recently removed, as the purpose for the checked box was to show that a student has completed at least one year of a foreign language during high school. I am directing that the following additional adjustments be made to Degree Works to aid and assist students, faculty, and academic advisors to be effective with the fall 2024 semester:

I direct the vice president for enrollment management to

• maintain the information on completion of high school foreign language at the top of the Degree Works for information purposes.

I direct the interim provost to

• oversee the development of an assessment rubric by fall 2024 that will determine the appropriate placement of students in foreign language courses; and
• update the General Education Requirements in all relevant documents to clearly explain how high school foreign language courses are evaluated at Buffalo State.

I further direct the interim provost and the vice president for enrollment management to

• advise faculty and staff members to continue to use the information in Degree Works on high school foreign language courses as the initial benchmark when determining the course level placement of students in foreign language courses, but to also implement an assessment rubric to confirm that the appropriate course level placement for each student has been determined.