Higher-ed institutions team up for foreign language center

Leaders from five local colleges and universities came together Sept. 17 to announce plans for the Foreign Languages Institute, a joint project to be housed in MSU’s Jim D. Morris Center in downtown Springfield.
 
At a news conference at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, administrators with Missouri State, Drury, Evangel and Southwest Baptist universities and Ozarks Technical Community College signed a memorandum of understanding under which MSU would establish the institute, with plans for classes to begin in fall 2013.
 
The institute will take local access to language training beyond traditional Spanish and French classes, with plans to offer Portuguese and Italian as the first two languages. The institute also will offer additional sections of Chinese and Arabic for universities that don’t offer those subjects. As a result of the collaboration, students at the four other schools will be able to enroll in classes at the institute at tuition levels for their respective schools, according to the agreement.

MSU interim President Clif Smart said the institute’s aim is to prepare area college students for a global workplace.
 
“As the world’s economy becomes increasingly competitive and connected, language training for Missouri’s workforce will become a major strategic asset. Southwest Missouri continues to undergo dramatic change. Population is growing, its economy is expanding, and the region is moving beyond the relative isolation of the past in order to engage more fully in an increasingly global society,” said Smart, who was joined at the meeting by fellow school leaders Hal Higdon of OTC, Robert Spence of Evangel and Pat Taylor of SBU, as well as Charles Taylor, Drury vice president of academic affairs and dean, who represented Drury President Todd Parnell.

The institute’s courses will be held during the evenings at the Morris Center.
 
The schools also revealed a joint community service project this fall. The schools will work together to provide more than 1,000 volunteers to package more than 1 million meals for the poor during the Nov. 9–11 Meals a Million event, presented at the Springfield Expo Center by Friends Against Hunger. College of the Ozarks also will work with the five schools on the community project.[[In-content Ad]]