College Requirements for the B.A.

All students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts are subject to college requirements in addition to the University’s requirements and the requirements of the major. These requirements do not apply to the Bachelor of Music degree or to the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree or to the Bachelor of Science degree.

Foreign Language

All students must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language at the Intermediate II level, by one of the following methods:

• Completion of a foreign language course at the fourth semester level (Intermediate II or Intermediate Intensive courses numbered 240-249). Intermediate II courses may be graded on a Pass/Fail basis.
• Degree credit equivalent to such a course earned through an appropriate score on an accepted College Board Foreign Language Test or an accepted College Board Advanced Placement Test.
• Proficiency demonstrated in a test designed by a University of Massachusetts language department, or a test administered and validated by a local language faculty member if the language is not one offered by a department at the University.
• Satisfactory completion in high school of either a fourth-level foreign language course, or of a third-level course in one language and a second-level course in another language.
• Successful completion of one year in a high school in which English is not the language of instruction.
• Successful completion of a semester or year’s study abroad program that leads to foreign language proficiency at the fourth semester (Intermediate II) level as approved by the appropriate language department.
• Students who entered the University prior to Fall 2018 and are completing a primary major in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a secondary major in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts may apply the CSBS Global Education requirement to the CHFA foreign language requirement under certain conditions. Students should meet with the CHFA Records Auditor early in their academic careers to discuss possible applicability of previous coursework.

Students who have not satisfied the Foreign Language requirement on admission to the college must select a foreign language course each term in residence until the requirement has been satisfied. The University offers sequences that satisfy this requirement in the following languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian (also available through the Five Colleges), Spanish, and Swedish. Students who have not yet completed the Foreign Language requirement may not apply their Pass/Fail option to foreign language courses numbered below 240.

Students with a documented language acquisition challenge or hearing impairment may petition a Consumer Manager at Disability Services for support of a foreign language modification. Final decisions on petitions for foreign language modification will be made by the Academic Deans in the Humanities and Fine Arts Advising and Career Center. To initiate such a petition, contact Disability Services, 161 Whitmore Administration Building, tel. (413) 545-0892. Modification courses may include proficiency in American Sign Language at the Intermediate II level, or completion of four courses (12-16 cr.) taught in English on the history, culture, or literature of non-English speaking countries or regions. These courses must be completed in addition to courses used to fulfill the General Education and major requirements, and may not be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. A list of courses that may be used in this manner is available from the Humanities and Fine Arts Advising and Career Center.