CLAC (Consortium Languages Across the Curriculum)
Founded 1996
Today inactive. Original Website: http://www.language.brown.edu/LAC/endorsements.html
Copy of archived statement and endorsements:

Statement of CLAC, 1996:

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM:
A DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

Languages Across the Curriculum (L.A.C.) refers to the practice through which
the study and use of languages take place throughout the curriculum. Its
purpose is to prepare students for the cross-cultural and multilingual demands
and opportunities of a global society. L.A.C. is appropriate at all levels of
education.

Goals

The long-term goal of L.A.C. is to integrate multiple languages into the
teaching of all disciplines in order to enrich their intercultural and
international content. The short-term goal is to enlist the support of faculty
and administrators to expand opportunities for the content-specific acquisition
and discipline-focused use of language and cultural knowledge by students
regardless of their chosen areas of expertise and inquiry. Cross-cultural and
multilingual inquiry leads to a more complete learning experience and provides a
basis for comparative understanding unavailable when students and faculty are
limited to the use of resources in only one language. Learners develop a deeper
and more precise understanding of a new language and culture by studying how
that language and culture address precisely defined topics about which they have
already established a certain familiarity in their native language.

Means

In some instances L.A.C. involves non-language faculty working independently to
enable students to use their language skills in the pursuit of knowledge and
skills in other domains. In a social studies class, for example, students might
read portions of de Tocqueville's L'ancien régime et la révolution. In an
engineering course, students might study excerpts from Fachkunde
Kraftfahrzeugtechnik. Students in international business in a school of
management might read selections from Tratado de libre comercio de America del
Norte in preparation for classroom discussion of the North American Free Trade
Agreement. Health care and social work students might learn how to interview
recent immigrants from various language backgrounds in a clinical setting.

In other instances L.A.C. involves joint efforts by language and non-language
faculty teaching cooperatively in any of their respective departments. The
potential range for integrating learning resources in multiple languages across
the curriculum has no limits. Materials can range from classic philosophical
texts to popular media, including videos and websites from around the world.
Fianlly, the student experience may be designed and led by individual faculty
members, by interdisciplinary teams of faculty, or by qualified students.

Rationale

1. Understanding of a given culture and its documents and artifacts is greatly
enhanced through a knowledge of its language.

2. A curriculum that includes materials in multiple languages provides access
to a wider range of perspectives, encourages greater depth of exploration, and
opens the door to greater understanding.

3. The use of materials in multiple languages significantly enhances any and
all disciplinary inquiry.

4. Languages Across the Curriculum enhances cross-cultural competence and the
ability of students to function in an increasingly multicultural society and a
globalized economy.

Dimensions and Domains of L.A.C. Programming

1. L.A.C. encourages students and faculty to view their studies in a global
context and to venture beyond their own cultural and linguistic borders in order
to gain additional perspectives and additional knowledge.

2. L.A.C. bridges existing curricular and disciplinary boundaries, creating a
more integrated learning environment and energizing the disciplines in new ways.

3. By integrating the use of multiple languages into disciplines across the
curriculum, L.A.C. reinforces the centrality of language study at all levels of
education.

4. L.A.C. challenges faculty, students, and administrators to place a higher
value on the language proficiency of bilingual students and faculty.

5. L.A.C. expands the number of graduates who are able to carry out work in
their major area of study in more than one language and has the potential to
create a larger workforce of bilingual and multilingual professionals.

Endorsements

This Declaration of Principles and Practices was adopted by the Consortium for
Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) at its founding meeting in Providence,
Rhode Island, November 1, 1996. We the founding members invite others to join
the Consortium by contacting Frank Ryan at Brown University (mail:
Center for Language Studies, Box E, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912-9705,
fax: 401-863-2551, e-mail: Frank_Ryan@brown.edu.

Cristina Ajemian, Chairperson, Department of Modern Languages, Massasoit
Community College
Mary E. Anderson, Professor of Nursing, Cape Cod Community College
Gabriela Appel, Senior Lecturer in German, Cornell University
Ruth Bettandorff, Associate Dean of the College, Agnes Scott College
Jack Blanshei, Senior Lecturer in Russian & Director, Center for Slavic &
Eurasian Studies, Emory University
Melissa Butler, Professor of Political Science, Wabash College
John Byrnes, Chairman, Department of Modern Languages, Wabash College
Maria Corso, Director-BASAC Lecturer, School of Business, SUNY College at Oswego
Laurent Ditmann, Associate Professor of French, Spelman College
Miriam Ellis, Lecturer in French, University of California at Santa Cruz
Patti Fitchen, Coordinator of French, University of California at Santa Cruz
Myra Gann, Professor of Spanish, SUNY College at Potsdam
Margery A. Ganz, Associate Professor of History, Director of Study Abroad,
Spelman College
John M. Grandin, Professor of German & Director, International Engineering
Program, University of Rhode Island
Andrée Grandjean-Levy, Senior Lecturer in French, Cornell University
Katharina von Hammerstein, Assistant Professor of Modern and Classical
Languages, University of Connecticut
Dierk Hoffmann, Department of German, Colgate University
Virginia Hogg, Director, Center for Health Promotion, Bridgewater State College
Frank Hugus, Chairperson, Department of Germanic Languages, University of
Massachusetts at Amherst
Richard Jurasek, Professor of German, Earlham College
Marianne Kalinke, Professor of Germanic Languages & Literatures, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jun Kawabe, Assistant Professor of Japanese, Earlham College
M. Regina Kecht, Associate Professor of German, University of Connecticut
Doris Kirchner, Assistant Professor of German, University of Rhode Island
Thomas A. Knudson, Professor, Department of Movement, Arts, Health Promotion &
Leisure Studies, Bridgewater State College
Dale L. Lange, Professor of Second Languages and Cultures Education, University
of Minnesota
Mike D. Ledgerwood, Director of Languages and Research Center, SUNY Stony Brook
Susan Loevenguth, Assistant Director for Academic Services, Syracuse University
Jay Lutz, Associate Professor of French, Oglethorpe University
Patrick M. McConeghy, Professor of German and Associate Dean for Graduate
Studies & Research, College of Arts & Letters, Michigan State University
Antonio V. Menendez Alarcón, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Butler University
Michael F. Metcalf, Professor of History & Director, Institute of International
Studies, University of Minnesota
Rosmarie Morewedge, Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages,
Binghamton University/SUNY
Yvonne Ozzello, Professor of French and Associate Dean for Humanities,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tullio Pagano, Dickinson College
David Paoli, Dickinson College
Viviana Plotnik, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Oglethorpe University
Robert Ponterio, Associate Professor of French, SUNY College at Cortland
Gail L. Riley, Assistant Professor of , Syracuse University
Julio Rodriguez-Luis, Chairperson, Department of Spanish & Portuguese,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Marie-Claire Rohinsky, Assistant Professor of Modern Languages, Central
Connecticut State University
Jorge L. Romeu, Associate Professor of Mathematics, SUNY College at Cortland
Frank Ryan, Director, Center for Language Studies, Brown University
Ivonne L. Schmitt, Instructor in Spanish, Spelman College
Janet Shideler, Assistant Professor of French, SUNY College at Potsdam
Robert Shoenberg, American Council of Education
Luise Speakman, Charperson, Department of Nursing, Cape Cod Community College
H. Stephen Straight, Director, Languages Across the Curriculum, Binghamton
University/SUNY
Christine Swafford-Smith, Associate Professor of Spanish, Earlham College
Diane J. Tedick, Associate Professor of Second Languages and Cultures Education,
University of Minnesota
Amalia S. Tio, Senior Lecture in Spanish, Cornell University
Shizuko Tomoda, Assocaite Professor of Modern Language, Central Connecticut
State University
Barbara Turlington, American Council of Education
Margarita Vargas, Associate Professor of Spanish, SUNY at Buffalo
Barbara Waible, Professor of Nursing Education, Massasoit Community College
Edith Welliver, Associate Professor of German, DePauw University
Ingrid Wieshofer, Professor of German, Agnes Scott College