Policies

General Education Requirements

Persons Affected

Students

Procedures

WAIVERS
Waivers in any specific competency area will be addressed on an individual basis under advisement. AP, CLEP, LOTE and REGENTS can be considered for waivers. Any student who applies for and is granted a waiver in a particular competency area must still complete the minimum General Education credit requirement of their degree program. The number of credits waived may be applied to “elective” courses in any of the ten competency areas at the students’ discretion though the College recommends that this be done under advisement.

Foreign Language Requirements Policy
The foreign language requirement for the SUNY General Education Program at Farmingdale State College requires students in most programs to successfully complete a course in the foreign language competency area. Some majors require a minimum proficiency of a Level II or higher foreign language. Students who wish to register for a Level II course must have successfully completed a college Level I course (or three to four years of study in that same language in high school) or take a placement examination offered by the Modern Language Department. The following provisions exempt a student from the Level I and Level II requirement:

• A student who has documentation of completion of primary education abroad in a foreign language other than English (this documentation must include a certified translation)
• A Regents or LOTE (Language other than English) exam score in a foreign language of 85 or above.
• Advanced Placement examination in a foreign language with a score of 3 or above.
• International Baccalaureate examination in a foreign language with a score of 4 or above.
• A CLEP exam score of 50 or above.
• A foreign language proficiency exam offered by the Modern Languages Department.

Students who are exempt from the foreign language requirement, may be required to take a higher level foreign language course, a foreign language culture/cinema course offered through the Modern Language Department or a liberal arts course to satisfy the credit requirements of the major. Students should consult with their academic advisor regarding this matter.

The Modern Language Department currently provides Proficiency Testing (credit by evaluation) in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin), Ethiopian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian (Farsi), Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu. Proficiency Testing languages are offered according to faculty evaluator availability and are subject to change. Students who successfully pass the exam will have three credits in Foreign Language.

If a student seeks exemption based on knowledge of a language not found on the list above, the student must take a language test administered by the Foreign Language Proficiency Testing Service of the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Services. If the student achieves a score of 8 or above on this test, he/she may receive up to six credits in foreign language. If the student’s score is 5-7, the student must enroll in one of the Modern Language Department’s elective culture/cinema courses taught in English to complete this requirement.

Consideration for a foreign language waiver/substitution for students with disabilities
To be considered for a Foreign Language Waiver (and then a course substitution), a student must be registered with the Disability Services Center (DSC).

The student requesting the foreign language waiver will provide documentation that explains the appropriateness of this request.

An example could be documentation that explains a language processing problem. Documentation will be reviewed by the director of the DSC and a determination will be made.

Students are strongly encouraged not to wait until the final year of FSC to make this request. Not all requests are approved.

When a foreign language waiver is approved, the student is required to substitute a Modern Language Course(s), (MLG) taught in English to fulfill the requirement in his/her curriculum.

Responsible Office

Office of the Provost

Policy History

2018-2019