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KSU Adds Teaching English as Second Language as Major
KENT, Ohio -- Teaching English as a second language has been added to the bachelor of arts degree program at Kent State University, trustees agreed at a Jan. 26 meeting. Trustees also established an audit committee to oversee university financial reporting and other financial activities and approved a new university policy regarding unlawful discrimination and harassment. In response to a statewide demand for teachers who are trained to teach English to the growing number of public-school students who do not speak English or are not native English speakers, the teaching English as a second language major will be added within the bachelor of arts degree program in KSU's College of Arts and Sciences. The program is among the first of its kind at an Ohio university, trustees said.The new major will be housed in the department of English and start next fall. The English department already offers a master's-level program in English with a concentration in teaching English as a second language, as well as an undergraduate certificate program in teaching English as a foreign language. Since there are few licensed or endorsed teachers English as a second language in northeast Ohio public schools, graduates of the new degree program are expected to be highly marketable, trustees noted.In addition to teaching English as a second language in public schools, graduates of the program will be qualified to teach in a variety of international educational institutions and government agencies.The audit committee was established as part of KSU's commitment to public accountability, trustees said. Creation of the committee also reflects the influence of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a major revision of federal securities laws that, on the heels of corporate-world scandals such as the Enron case, enacted higher standards for corporate governance and greater transparency of financial reporting. Although there no similar regulations exist for public institutions, KSU trustees said they are interested in "implementing the best practices evolving from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as they relate to college and university governance."The new policy regarding unlawful discrimination and harassment, which takes effect immediately, supports the university's longstanding equal opportunity policy while consolidating its harassment and sexual harassment policies, specifying behaviors that constitute racial/ethnic harassment, sexual harassment and disability harassment and providing a single process for handling all complaints related to unlawful discrimination and harassment.Development of the consolidated policy was led by the university's director of affirmative action, Ann Penn, and vice provost for diversity and academic initiatives, Dr. Steve Michael."