President Bush announced this month his plans to boost the study of foreign languages in U.S. schools, but some university representatives say Penn State's foreign language requirements and programs are already making effective strides.

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said it is too soon to determine whether or not Penn State will actively react to the plans.

However, Jamie Myers, University Faculty Senate chairman, said the Faculty Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs is not currently considering changing the university's foreign language requirement.

Several calls placed to the White House Office of Media Affairs were not returned.

According to the University Undergraduate Advising Handbook, the admissions policy states that students must have at least two years of a single foreign language at the high school level.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree requires proficiency to the 12-credit level in a foreign language. But language proficiency for a Bachelor of Science is determined by each individual major.

Myers said that "Penn State was at the forefront of universities" by requiring two years of a foreign language in high school as an admissions requirement and does not think there needs to be an increase.

However, Caroline Eckhardt, comparative literature department head and school of language and literature director, said the $114 million that Bush has requested for this project is not enough.

Eckhardt said that she would like to see every school eventually begin teaching foreign languages in kindergarten.

She said she also would like to see classes nationwide incorporate culture, literature, history and customs to the study of language.

"It's very important and long overdue," she said. "The U.S. is far behind all other countries. As a nation, we have not been doing nearly enough."

However, Eckhardt said that although it is not in direct response to these recently announced plans, language programs at Penn State have been given increased visibility over the past two to three years.

The university has expanded the number of languages that it offers in its summer intensive language programs, which include studies in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, German and other languages.

The College of the Liberal Arts has also expanded the study abroad program to farther corners of the world, in addition to an online Ukrainian class now offered to students.

Penn State French and Arabic lecturer Inas Messiha also said she feels Bush's plans are a necessary step for the nation to take.

"It's about time," she said. "We're behind everyone in the world -- it will help our image and help to understand others in the world."

Messiha, who is also the university's Arabic language coordinator, said that she has seen an increase in the number of students who want to take courses in Arabic, mainly due to the U.S. war in Iraq.

Thomas Hale, head of the department of French and Francophone studies, said that in one sense, this effort is too late, especially when taking into consideration how long ago the United States invaded Iraq.

"It takes years to train in a language, and we're years too late," he said. "It's too little, too late."

Hale said he is happy to see the U.S. government spend money on an issue like this, but he thinks it should go through the U.S. Department of Education rather than being so directly linked to national defense.

Russian Club President Vitaliy Solovyev thinks that this initiative is necessary for the future of U.S. businesses.

"They will be languages spoken by future world powers. In order for the U.S. to be successful, they'll need to speak these languages," he said. "They'll be influencing the economy of the world."