DLI Approved to Award Associates Degrees

According to the Community College of the Air Force Associates Degree Program Manager (CCAFADPM), The Defense Language Institute--Presidio of Monterey Campus has been authorized to grant AA degrees to those who have completed basic language courses there since 1991. The DLI degree program is similar to CCAF degree programs in that students transfer general education credits from other sources (traditional classroom, DL, CLEP, DANTES, etc.) to DLI. I would like to add that the DLI program is, also in the same sense, similar to many other nontraditional degree programs.

Authorization for DLI to grant degrees was included in the 2002 Defense Appropriations Bill. While details of the program are still being hammered out, it appears as though degrees can be granted retroactively to those who have graduated since 1991, providing they have met the necessary requirements for the degree. While none of the information I received said what the degree title would be, I presume that it will be an Associate of the Arts in the specific language studied at DLI.

In addition to meeting general education requirements, degree candidates must be graduates of basic language courses. DLI's intermediate and advanced language courses do not qualify for the degree.

The degree will require 35 credit hours from DLI. These credits will form the core of the degree program. Intuitively, it would seem to me that not even all basic courses will qualify, since not all of them (at least as I recall) require the completion of 35 credit hours of coursework while at DLI.

It appears also that coursework done at the other DLI campuses (DLI East Coast Branch, DLI Southwest Branch, DLI, Presidio of San Francisco, DLI Lackland, and DLI Washington (D.C.) Office) does not qualify participants for the degree program.

The CCAFADPM wrote in an e-mail that DLI--Presidio of Monterey would set up a web site soon to assist those who think they might qualify for the degree program. In the meantime, the official DLI-Presidio of Monterey web site can be found by directing your web browser to
http://pom-www.army.mil/pages/dliflc.htm

DLI--Presidio of Monterey is regionally accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges/Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (WASC-JR). DLI was not, however, authorized to grant degrees until this year.


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