Brent Lowe
Staff Reporter
One of the most valuable minors on campus right now could land you a job right out of college, a very stable career in the military and impress just about everyone you know. The teacher is a hard worker and she’s there for you whenever you need help.
The minor is Arabic, and it doesn’t exist, not yet anyway. In recent days McDaniel College students have realized that if one more class was available on this campus, they could have a minor in the Arabic language.
It turns out that a college loaded up with ROTC students that may one day be shipped to the Middle East has a pretty heavy demand for Arabic and it’s been growing faster than the administration had prepared for. Even regular students decided it was worth a look and signed up.
And now, some of these students have completed all of the four of the classes that were offered, but they want more, they want a minor.
“It’s more about giving students as much help as they can get”, says minor hopeful Jake Friedman, “Arabic is a desirable language.”
To make Arabic a minor, McDaniel would have to add a 3000 level class and the school says they don’t have the money. They don’t have the money for one class?
Besides the hard work of the students that have already taken the classes they need, there are a lot of benefits to having an Arabic Minor.
Many colleges offer Arabic as a class, but what would set McDaniel apart from the rest IS THE MINOR. Even Towson University, the second largest college in Maryland, hasn’t made an upgrade from a class to a minor. The ROTC program would look great after the military sees that a bunch of the kids they pay to go here also got a minor in Arabic.
The current conflicts in the Middle East make anyone with Arabic experience an invaluable tool. There are over 65 minors on campus including 5 in languages (Latin?!?!), how much could one more hurt?