Texas Wesleyan University has joined forces with four other private liberal arts colleges to form the Texas Language Consortium, a collaborative pilot program designed to expand foreign language options for students.

President Frederick G. Slabach and the presidents of Concordia University, Schreiner University and Texas Lutheran participated in a formal signing in Austin this month. Lubbock Christian University is the fifth partner. Also on hand were representatives of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, the group that spearheaded the consortium.

“Broadening our foreign language offerings is another way we can prepare students for success beyond the classroom,” Slabach said. “Understanding other cultures and languages is essential to a strong global community,” he said.

The program would give students the chance to enroll in German, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. Each participating school will offer the courses through a video conferencing lab with faculty support.

As part of the signing event, the group was able to see firsthand how the classes would operate.

“We participated in a demonstration of the teleconferencing equipment with a professor who attempted to teach us all a few words and tones of Mandarin Chinese,” Slabach said.