We want to welcome our newest institutional member: Wesleyan University (representative Stephen Angle).

Wesleyan University’s CLAC program is administered out of the Fries Center for Global Studies, and aims to provide students and faculty across the campus with opportunities to deepen their engagement with their subjects through the use and further development of their language and intercultural skills.

CLAC courses at Wesleyan can be linked to an English-medium course or standalone, and students can earn either 0.25 or 0.5 credits (1 or 2 semester hours) depending on the expected level of out-of-class preparation and assignments.

Wesleyan’s CLAC program began in January of 2019 and to-date, courses have been offered in Ancient Greek, Chinese (Mandarin), German, Hebrew, Korean, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.

We look forward to working with Wesleyan and its institutional representative in years to come!

If you are interested in joining CLAC as an institutional member, please contact us at clacconsortium@gmail.com

11/19/2019
A great report by Laura Pappano on the growing interest on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum, featuring work at consortial members Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Utah:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/education/what-happens-when-college-students-discuss-lab-work-in-spanish-philosophy-in-chinese-or-opera-in-italian/2019/11/18/0eef3f7a-0985-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html

11/15/2019
CLAC at Wesleyan University, and how it helped strengthen language enrollments at this institution:
https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2019/11/15/language-study-at-wesleyan-holds-strong-bucking-trend-of-national-declines/

In October 2019, fifteen stakeholders of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) Consortium – institutional representatives and executive officers – gathered at the University of Chicago for the CLAC Summit 2019: Strategic Solutions in a Complex Landscape.  The aim of the summit was to re-examine the purpose and direction of the CLAC Consortium in light of contemporary challenges facing modern languages, the humanities, and U.S. higher education in general.

The Summit was a great success, and some of the highlighted outcomes are: 

Outcome 1: The definition of CLAC: 

CLAC is a curricular framework that provides opportunities to develop and apply language and intercultural competence within all academic disciplines through the use of multilingual resources and the inclusion of multiple cultural perspectives.

Outcome 2: The vision statement of CLAC Consortium:

CLAC Consortium’s vision is that multilingual and multicultural perspectives will inform all curricular and co-curricular practices in higher education, that the barriers between language learning and disciplinary learning will dissolve, that all students will have multiple opportunities to meaningfully use languages they know or are learning, and that institutions of higher education will value all languages as a means to access, generate, and disseminate knowledge.

Outcome 3: The Mission Statement of CLAC Consortium:

The CLAC Consortium helps faculty identify ways to incorporate diverse languages and cultures across academic disciplines, thereby enhancing the translingual and transcultural competence of their students. Through mentoring, workshops, conferences, and publications, the consortium supports programmatic development and alignment between CLAC and key institutional priorities. The consortium promotes the visibility of CLAC programs and advocates for the adoption of the CLAC framework across higher education.

Outcome 4: Four CLAC Consortium Working Groups: 

• Research and Assessment 
• “Shelter”: Collaboration with other organizations
• Communications
• Training

Outcome 5: A new CLAC leadership team: 

• Interim Chair: JY Zhou, Stockton University 
• Interim Vice Chair: Bernd Estabrook, Illinois College
• Interim Secretary/Treasurer: William Pavlovich, Binghamton University

Be sure to register here for the December meeting described below. Please note that the registration will close on December 7, 2018.

CLAC proudly announces the launch of its CLAC webinar series. REGIST HERE for the November 2018 session now while space remains.

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Are you are or a colleague headed to AAC&U’s “Global Engagement and Spaces of Practice” conference in Seattle (11-13 October 2018)? Catch two CLAC practitioners & institutional representatives present on other international engagement projects. And, you can catch them for any CLAC-related questions too.

Poster 7: Social Media: Digital Approaches to Global Learning Friday, October 12 – 8:00 A.M. – 9:30 A.M. CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST AND POSTER SESSIONS, GRAND FOYER, FOURTH FLOOR

 Description: Technology, because of its open and collaborative nature, can and should be used widely and creatively in connecting students within the campus and with the world, developing interdisciplinary perspectives, identifying and using existing resources, and enhancing every student’s global learning and engagement. Social media plays an important role in students’ daily lives but is rarely used in curricular and cocurricular activities in higher education. Many students and educators perceive social media as a means of entertainment. However, when implemented properly, social media can be used as an effective pedagogical tool to enhance student engagement and cultivate their global perspectives. This poster will introduce digital approaches to define, develop, and engage global learning in and outside of classrooms, including example assignments Jiangyuan (JY) Zhou, Internationalization Specialist (CLAC Vice Chair) and Ai Zhang, Associate Professor of Public Relations both of Stockton University.

Session 11: Global Learning in Your Neighborhood Community-Based Language Learning: Creating Partnerships

Friday, October 12, 9:45-10:45AM CONCURRENT SESSIONS, GRAND 2, FOURTH FLOOR

Description: In this session, presenters will focus on how world language students can partner with local immigrant and refugee populations to work in solidarity toward social change. Presenters first distinguish global learning in English from global learning in a second language, calling on conversations in community engagement, second language acquisition, and critical theory to underscore the unique features of working in a second language. Although language learners are still building communication skills, the types of interactions they can develop with local communities in the common world language can deepen the understanding of personal narratives and contemporary issues related to immigration and resettlement of refugees. Working in solidarity with immigrant and refugee populations, learners reflect on ethical and personal questions that provide opportunities for transformative learning. Ultimately, presenters argue that language learning and social justice are complementary learning outcomes, and that languages are a tool for social change. Joan Clifford, Assistant Professor of the Practice and Deb Reisinger, Assistant Professor of the Practice—both of Duke University

We want to welcome our newest institutional members and look forward to working with, and getting to know, their representatives during the coming months.

• Ohio Northern University (representative: Kanishka Sen)

• Mount Holyoke College (representative: Jean Janecki)

• Chestnut Hill College (representative: Mary Helen Kashuba)

We’ve also had transitions at existing institutional members and we want to welcome the newest  CLAC representatives from the following institutions:

• Oscar Perez Hernandez, Skidmore

• Adrienne Gonzales, University of Denver

• Ellen Sayles, University of Richmond

If you are interested in joining CLAC as an institutional member, please contact us at clacconsortium@gmail.com

During our April 2018 meeting at the University of Denver, we identified four working groups to move along our agenda.  

1) Redefining CLAC (Convener: Danielle Salaz, UC Boulder): The goals of this group are to investigate the various ways CLAC has been defined and to reshape and clarify the definition of CLAC for the 21st Century. Goals for this group are to a) develop a definition of CLAC that is easily understood by newcomers b) establish a foundation for advocacy and publicizing CLAC initiatives. Elements will include the philosophy of CLAC as well as descriptions of different kinds of established and emergent programs.

This ad hoc group, comprised of institutional representatives, will meet in a virtual environment on a bi-monthly basis with the goal of developing a final definition by the end of Spring 2019 semester. Meeting times will be determined by the group at mutually agreed upon times.

2) Digital Presence & Education (Convener: JY Zhou, Stockton University): This group is focused on developing a path for CLAC’s digital engagement and presence agenda.  This includes professional development, training, webinars, social media channels, CLAC Clearinghouse, and the CLAC website.  Developing a strategic plan for branding and defining.

3) Advocacy (Convener: Bernd Estabrook, Illinois College): The Advocacy Group will look at strategies for promoting and sustaining CLAC programs on campus. We will address questions such as: How can we better integrate CLAC programs into the existing curriculum? In a time of shortened means, how can we demonstrate the value of CLAC to the campus mission, to provide resources for new CLAC programs, or to enhance existing opportunities? What technologies, media, and platforms are most useful for getting the word out?

4) Assessment: (Convener: Deb Reisinger, Duke University): This group will not begin meeting until a working definition emerges from the REDEFINING CLAC group. This group aims to 1) gain an understanding of how CLAC is currently assessed at member institutions 2) determine assessment gaps and needs 3) create and administer a large scale assessment across consortial members 4) share out best practices for internal assessment.