The Department of Foreign Languages will no longer award bonus credit for passing upper-level language classes without taking the prerequisites.

Under the current system, students may enroll in any level of course without testing and receive credit for the two courses preceding it if they earn a B or higher. The Faculty Senate approved the motion to eliminate the bonus credit March 6, and the chancellor signed off on it two days later.

Alexandra Fitts, the Foreign Language Department's chair, called the bonus credits redundant. Students can already earn college credit through CLEP and AP tests.

"We're duplicating services," she said.

Since no tests exist for Alaska Native languages, the department will still award bonus credit for those languages.

Since fall semester, the department has awarded 350 bonus credits to 47 students, the department says. Enrollment has climbed in recent years, and requests for bonus credit have jumped with it, Fitts said.

UAF does not require foreign language placement tests. Many students who enroll in the higher-level courses to get the extra credits are not ready for the workload, Fitts said.

"The bonus credit system creates incentives for students to take courses that they're not prepared for," she said.

In a list of reasons submitted to the senate for the policy change, the Foreign Language Department said the bonus credit system was overly complicated. Although it tried to draft a policy to cover how and when it would grant credit, new problems continue to arise.

"Not a week goes by without some new, unexpected request for credit that must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis," the department said in a written explanation. "The evaluation of these cases is causing an undue burden to faculty and staff."

Because of the bonus credit, high school teachers are advising students not to take AP tests if they are going to UAF, the department says.

Current policy also requires native speakers to enroll in 300-level courses to earn bonus credits. Many students, especially those fluent in Spanish, have been signing up for courses below their level, the department says.

The department also told the Faculty Senate that it was the only program to offer bonus credits. But Deborah Cynar, an advisor at the Academic Advising Center, said the department was mistaken, as the Math and English departments have similar programs.

The English department grants credit for English 111 to students with high SAT and ACT scores. Students can also receive credit for prerequisite calculus courses if they pass either Math 201, 202, or 302.

The move toward a test-based prior learning credit system for foreign language reflects a general trend across campus, Cynar said.

"That's really the direction the university is going," Cynar said. "It's all in the catch phrase 'with instructor permission'."

Students can earn up to 16 credits in French, German and Spanish through CLEP tests. UAF will also grant credit to students who take Japanese and Russian tests through Brigham Young University.

Cynar said she tells students about the bonus credit but advises them to talk to instructors before hopping into a class beyond their learning level. She called the credit scheme's elimination a "bummer," adding she could see where the department was coming from.

Tabitha Johnson, 21, earned bonus credits after passing Spanish 102, and she's working on getting more from Spanish 302.

"You don't have to pay for it, you don't have to work for it, you just get it," Johnson said.

Andrea Devers, president of the Russian Language Club, said many languages taught at UAF are not common as high school AP classes. Eliminating the bonus credit may put future students at a disadvantage, she said.

"I understand what they're trying to do, because there are other ways to get it," Devers said. "But then I have friends who've used it."