Ashland University’s Faculty Senate approved a major overhaul of the way its students study other cultures and languages Friday.

By a 28-13 vote – with six abstentions – the senate approved the GPS plan, which will eliminate the requirement that students seeking a Bachelor of Arts degree study a foreign language. The new program also eliminates the current Core International Perspectives requirement.

Through the GPS program, all undergraduate students at the university will be required to take some form of international study. It could include foreign language study, a series of cultural studies courses mixed with international experiences or a full-scale study abroad program.

The new program will go into effect for incoming students in the fall of 2012, and will give students roughly five choices when it comes to fulfilling their GPS requirement.

“We talk about AU for its campus and food service and some of its programs,” said Provost Dr. Frank Pettigrew during the first part of what would become a more than two-hour debate. “What we have is the opportunity today to advance the academic experience at AU by having a global competence requirement that puts us out front, that puts us in the 21st century.”

The legislation survived despite one failed attempt to amend it and the fact that the Foreign Language Department, at one point a champion of the proposed changes, had pulled its support.

“The Foreign Language Department fully supported the earliest model,” said department chair Dr. Barbara Schmidt-Rinehart. “But the model presented here is not that model. It represents fundamental changes, changes that were made without Foreign Language representation on the committee.”

Schmidt-Rinehart said her department was concerned the new plan would no longer increase demand in foreign language study. Rather, she feels students will opt for other options that seem easier and less rigorous to complete.

The failed amendment, put forth by faculty in the College of Education, would have allowed students to take six hours of Foreign Language study as a substitute for six hours of core classes in the aesthetics, humanities, social sciences or natural sciences areas. That amendment failed by a 22-16 vote.

Pettigrew admitted there will be costs associated with the new program, but that the university’s administration is ready to financially support it.

“This doesn’t come free,” he said. “It will cost in some way. It may cost your program. It may cost the university some dollars. But providing these experiences will help students for a lifetime.”