St. Cloud State President Earl Potter is urging the campus community to be cautious about a circulating petition, which asks SCSU administration to enforce MnSCU’s policy requiring students to have foreign language exposure. Potter says although such a requirement would expand the university’s global mission, it would also “require an increase in language faculty at a time when we are eliminating faculty lines in other areas in order to balance our budget.”

Mike Hasbrouck, chair of SCSU’s Spanish department, drafted the petition. He says in this time of financial uncertainty, foreign language departments must to state their cases as to why their field of study is so important.