At Millikin University, passionate language professors and current students are fighting to keep foreign language education alive amid shrinking enrollments and reduced course requirements.

Language education matters, and there is hope for reinvigorating language studies at Millikin. Language learning is more than grammar—it’s a gateway to cultural understanding, critical thinking, and global citizenship that students can’t afford to ignore.

In the fall of 2023, the College of Arts & Sciences restructured into five schools, one of which combined the English Department and the Modern Language Department into the School of Writing Languages and Cultures, with Dr. Julie Bates as the director. When she took the role, the department faced significant obstacles, including having no full-time language faculty for a year. 

In turn, Millikin offered online courses. However, online language learning isn’t ideal, as students often rush or don’t retain much. With fewer in-person classes available, the university relied on online options, but they lacked the interaction and immersion needed for fluency. 

Bates worked to rebuild the program with Professor Dr. Francesca Tescione, adjunct Italian Professor, and recruited Professor Dr. Paula Ruiz Santamaria as a full-time Spanish faculty member to help as well.

Tescione became a coordinator for languages to navigate and mentor the language faculty. The Modern Language Department currently teaches Italian and Spanish, and students can minor in Spanish and take both language classes as electives or to fulfill university requirements. 

Tescione has taught Spanish, Italian, and global studies for over 20 years. Ruiz Santamaria is an assistant professor for the School of Writing Languages and Cultures. She has been teaching Spanish courses and international and global literature courses for over 10 years. Recently, she has been teaching these classes for several months at Millikin.

Ultimately, the curriculum changes have reduced language requirements for BA students from three semesters to one, which Bates believes limits students’ language learning potential.

“We want students taking a language as much as possible,” Bates said. “We want them to take more writing classes. Everyone should be getting some humanities and social science courses, some creative arts—our University Studies program is directly tied [to this].”

Both Tescione and Ruiz Santamaria are passionate about bringing back modern languages to Millikin.

“We’re waiting for students to come,” Ruiz Santamaria said. “We are here. We are ready, and we want to bring [languages] back. [We’re] going to start the book club next semester in Spanish.”

Millikin’s restructuring of the Modern Languages Department is part of a larger national pattern of consolidation and redefinition. While Millikin’s size and budget pressures may have accelerated the shift, the underlying trend is systemic. 

When only a handful of students enroll in upper-level language courses, it becomes difficult for universities to justify the cost of offering them. Student priorities are shifting, too. Many students are choosing majors they perceive as more directly tied to career outcomes like business, health sciences, or technology. 

Language learning is still valuable, but it’s often seen as “extra,” rather than essential. 

Kaia Garbacz, a senior nursing major and Spanish minor, found the minor beneficial, but felt betrayed by the program’s decline.

“Having the minor, it really opens your eyes, and it lets you interact with patients in a way that you don’t [get to],” Garbacz said. “When I was working [at a hospital] over the summer, I came across patients who were exclusively Spanish-speaking. I was able to talk to them, understand what was going on, or give instructions to be able to care for [them]. I think that makes it more personal and eliminates a middleman from an interpreter.”

Multilingual skills are increasingly important in today’s interconnected world. This is especially true for students preparing to enter diverse professional fields. Faculty members emphasize that language learning isn’t just an academic path, but a practical and ethical one.

“Right now there’s an incredible need [for] therapists, nurses, singers, people in arts and business majors, and music to learn Spanish or learn a language,” Ruiz Santamaria said, pointing to the growing demand across disciplines. 

Bates described how language education contributes to a meaningful and connected life. 

“It’s better understanding people who may be different than us, and who we are going to be living our entire lives with and communicating with in different ways, that life of meaning, value, and connection to a global society,” Bates said. “That’s exactly what language classes are offering.”

Garbacz criticized Millikin’s decision to cut the major, arguing that it undermines both educational access and Millikin’s stated values.

“Eliminating the major means fewer opportunities, not just for me, but for other students as well,” Garbacz said. “[When] professors leave, that’s less people available to teach. Millikin claims to promote democratic citizenship in a global environment, yet fails to support that mission because they’re not teaching foreign languages or cultures.” 

Millikin University’s mission as an institution is as follows: “Through the integration of theory and practice, we prepare students for professional success, democratic citizenship in a global environment, and a personal life of meaning and value.”

For as long as Tescione has been an educator, she has tried to give students the possibility to be exposed to somebody from Italy, France, Spain, and other countries.

“We are talking about globalization all the time, and it sounds like an empty word when you don’t put things like a language in it,” Tescione said. “Language is a representation of culture, and it’s just one aspect of it. If we are always pushing people to be more cultivated… to be a global citizen, people need to know more beyond their borders.” 

Sustaining language programs requires more than student interest. It depends on faculty across departments. Advisors and professors should actively encourage students to take language courses like Spanish, not just for academic credit, but because they foster professional growth and human empathy. 

As Tescione noted, these classes offer more than grammar; they build cultural awareness and communication skills. To sustain language programs, we need visible advocacy from the broader faculty community.

“Language is the one last chance for the students to do something they have never done before,” Tescione said.

Despite Millikin downsizing the language department to cutting the French language and the Spanish Major, there are ways to get involved and keep the program and cultures alive. 

Consider taking a language class, and join or attend the Italian Club, Spanish Club, Latin American Students Organization (LASO), ISOs, and learn more about Millikin’s Study Abroad opportunities to support modern languages and cultures.