In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, Marquette needs to give serious consideration to the opportunities it gives its students. In this interest, the university might want to look into whether or not the skills and advantages provided by expanded foreign language course offerings will give Marquette graduates a competitive edge.

Right now, Japanese is the only language offered at Marquette that isn't Euro-centric. At least two languages in particular — Arabic and Chinese — need to be offered to 21st century college students. If the university wanted to show a truly broad commitment, it would look into at least one or two other languages such as Farsi, Hindi, Portuguese, Swahili or Urdu.

A too frequent complaint about Americans traveling abroad is that they do not understand any language besides English. While greater offerings of foreign languages won't be a panacea for "ugly Americans," there is little denying that expanded educational opportunities would help. If Marquette became one of the few schools around to offer comprehensive programs in non-European languages, it could establish itself as a truly global university.

Expanding beyond the European-based languages that are currently offered at Marquette is not a knock on those languages. It's not as if Spanish, French, German and Italian have lost any importance.

However, it is impossible to deny the expanding prominence of other languages. Including more languages in Marquette's course offering would help make the university stand out and be attractive to prospective students and donors.

For instance, there are substantial ROTC programs on Marquette's campus. It would be an invaluable service for our ROTC students to know at least a few necessary phrases of Arabic or Farsi if they're going to be stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere in the Middle East.

This would establish Marquette as a university that supports U.S. troops by providing them with practical skills that they can use in the field. Such a reputation can get around quickly among prospective ROTC students.

Chinese is becoming an increasingly important language in international business and politics. It would be extremely attractive to international finance, business or international affairs students to have a working knowledge of Chinese. This could allow Marquette to capitalize on an incredible opportunity and set up a global donor base by better preparing its business students for successful positions in a wider variety of countries.

There are, of course, logistical limitations to expanding foreign language offerings. It's not possible to set up a large expansion of a program overnight. However, there are things that the administration can do in the short-term. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee currently offers beginning and intermediate level classes in Arabic and Chinese. Marquette could look into setting up an enrollment plan similar to the agreement with Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design for fine arts studies. This program allows Marquette students to enroll in classes at MIAD while paying tuition to Marquette.

However, such an exchange should only serve in the interim while Marquette would allocate funds for high-demand faculty and comprehensive language programs. The investment in setting up these programs could pay off in the long run as Marquette begins to garner a reputation as a cosmopolitan university that offers its students greater opportunities in a shrinking globe.

There is great long-term potential in offering students more foreign language course offerings. At the very least Marquette could be more attractive to prospective ROTC and international program students. If an expansion were an unqualified success, Marquette could be viewed as a global university with a stronger donor base tied to the international business community. These potential benefits make it worthwhile for the university to at least look into an expansion of foreign language offerings.

This editorial appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 3 2005.