Raising the bar on language

At its December meeting, the Bloomington Faculty Council passed new English proficiency standards for associate instructors, the first change in the policy since 1979. Under the new rules, AIs now have one semester in which to improve their English skills. In the meantime they are allowed to assume the duties and benefits of an AI (full tuition remission plus a stipend upwards of $3,000).\nWe oppose any policy that would allow an AI who is deficient in either written or spoken English to teach a class at IU other than high-level foreign language courses.\nNo matter how gifted and knowledgeable a person, his effectiveness as an instructor depends entirely upon his ability to impart knowledge to the student. If an instructor is not able to communicate his understanding of the material in the language understood by the vast majority of his students, those students will not receive the first-class education that Indiana University-Bloomington purports to provide. The fact that a graduate student teaches one of every five classes at IU underscores the need to ensure that each AI is competent in both the subject matter and English.\nForeign students are an integral part of IU's cultural, social and intellectual community. Because they contribute so much to IU's vitality, one might argue that allowing them a semester to learn English is an appropriate accommodation in that context. We reject such reasoning.\nIU certainly aspires to be a premier teaching university. That goal will be unattainable if undergraduates are taught by individuals who do not speak their language. IU's standing as a teaching institution would justifiably suffer. With the exception of high-level foreign language courses, graduate students should teach an undergraduate course at IU only when they can communicate adequately in English. \nA student's inability to speak English doesn't make him intellectually unqualified for study at IU. But it should preclude him from classroom teaching. We believe IU should continue to recruit vigorously foreign undergraduate and graduate students. Those graduate students who are deficient in English but otherwise highly qualified can and should be assisted in any way that does not compromise the high standards of undergraduate teaching. Awarding associate instructorships to students deficient in English, we believe, would do just that. \nAll undergraduate students, and their parents, must insist that AI's speak English -- the language understood by the vast majority of IU students. Any deviation from this principle keeps IU undergraduates from receiving the education that they, and Indiana taxpayers, have paid for.