Brandeis needs to do away with its current foreign language requirement. Now, I'm not proposing we do away with the entire foreign language requirement; I feel that we should be requiremed to take at least one foreign language class, but that language class should be permitted to be as low as a 10-level. Let's face it: Most students who are forced to take a foreign language forget almost everything they learn within a year-at least that's what happened to me in both languages I've taken. If the foreign language requirement was to take just one 10-level language class, then it would be equivalent to all of the other distribution requirements that the University has, which is exactly how it should be.

Currently, students are enrolled in language classes who don't want to take them, creating a need for multiple sections of the same class. There is money to be saved by reducing the foreign language requirement, and the University knows it. The recently released final report of the Brandeis 2020 Committee states that the committee "discussed at length the possibility of resource savings" by changing the foreign language requirement. This was a step toward changing the current foreign language requirement, but the University must take further action in that direction.

Brandeis, a school that tries to give everyone an advantage, is putting students who struggle to learn foreign languages at a severe disadvantage. As one of those students, I have trouble memorizing the endless vocabulary and grammar rules. Imagine if the University tried requiring more classes from the School of Science-most humanities- and social science-oriented students wouldn't be very happy about it.

One of the main arguments for the foreign language requirement is stated on the University's Web site: "The goal of the foreign language requirement . is to prepare students to understand better and to participate in a different culture by developing basic skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) in another language."

If the point of the foreign language requirement is to prepare students to communicate with a wide variety of people, then why allow students to fulfill the language requirement through the wide variety of dying languages that the University offers? Why not require students to take only commonly spoken languages like Spanish or French? However, if the University were to make the requirement only to complete a 10-level course, then they could allow the course to also be about culture instead of only language. That way, a student will come away from the course knowing the fundamentals not only of the language but also of its culture.

Foreign language does not have to be the huge mountain of requirements that it is. The current situation can be corrected by making the requirement that each student just pass the lowest level of any language. This way, the University can save money by having fewer classes of something that many students dread, and students will be able to put their time toward something that they actually enjoy doing. Overall, the University would be saving money and allowing students to choose their classes more freely-and there's nothing wrong with that.