Credit requirements may increase for students hoping to graduate with a foreign language minor if the Council on Academic Affairs approves the request Thursday.

The foreign language department is requesting that CAA change the minimum credit requirement of 17 semester hours to 20 semester hours to “create a stronger minor,” Stephen Canfield, chair and associate professor of foreign languages, said.

Currently, a student in the foreign language minor program must complete nine semester hours in advanced courses of the 3000 or 4000 level. If the request is passed, a student would be required to complete 12 hours of those courses.

Students must also take four semester hours of FLG 2201G and four semesters of FLG 2202G. That would be 20 total semester hours to graduate with the minor.

However, some students may avoid taking some or all of the lower level courses with permission from the department chair if they had three or four years of a foreign language in high school.

“Someone who already speaks Spanish, German or French fluently would certainly be allowed to skip the lower division courses,” Canfield said.

There are two ways for a student to do this, Canfield said.

One is to take four semester hours in the lower level course along with the proposed 12 hours of advanced courses.

Another option, “for students who came in with four or five years of foreign language from high school,” may skip all of the lower level courses and go straight to the advanced courses.

CAA will meet to discuss the issue at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.