BTAA Indigenous Language Programs

How to Enroll in Indigenous Language Courses

 If you are interested in pursuing language studies at a non-BTAA university or program, we welcome you to visit CNAIR or reach out with questions. At present, Northwestern's policy is to enroll students in a placeholder course under the GEN_LA heading in CAESAR, the course registration system. Placeholder courses correspond with the level of a language course, from beginner through four years or beyond of study.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance CourseShare Program

Northwestern University is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, "the nation’s preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities." Member institutions have committed to "leveraging campus resources" for the benefit of students throughout the alliance. 

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) has 15 participating institutions:  

• University of Illinois
• Indiana University
• University of Iowa
• University of Maryland
• University of Michigan
• Michigan State University
• University of Minnesota
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Northwestern University
• Ohio State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• Purdue University
• Rutgers University-New Brunswick
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Chicago

As an student Northwestern University, you are able to enroll in courses at these universities through the BTAA CourseShare program. 

CourseShare enables students to enroll remotely in "less commonly taught language courses" and in other forms of coursework available at BTAA universities that are not offered at their home institution. As UMN's CourseShare page explains, the program "provides students with access to courses they need for their academic and career goals, and connects them with students and scholars across the country." For example, a student at UMN could enroll in Haitian Creole language courses taught by faculty at Indiana University. 

At Northwestern, undergraduate and graduate students have enrolled in Dakota and Ojibwe language courses taught by faculty at UMN. Northwestern graduate students have also enrolled in seminars on digital humanities topics taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These are just a few examples among over 170 courses shared across BTAA universities during each academic year since 2020. Additionally, there are many other possibilities for you to explore that Northwestern students have not yet taken advantage of. 

To enroll in a CourseShare course at another BTAA university as a Northwestern student, you can follow the steps outlined below. For clarity, although many of the procedures are the same, the steps for enrolling are divided into undergraduate and graduate student sections. 

Regardless of your degree program, your first step is to identify the course(s) that you plan to take. Please note that courses in Indigenous histories, methodologies, literatures, etc. are also available, but this guide focuses on helping you to enroll in language courses. 

Indigenous Language Courses offered at BTAA institutions - please see this spreadsheet for the most up-to-date information - BTAA Indigenous Language Courses

Undergraduate 

You can enroll in Indigenous language courses through the BTAA by completing a form to request a class be made available to you via CourseShare. At the end of this page, in the Appendix, we also provide a sample email that you can use to directly request that the Registrar enroll you in a course at another BTAA university. 

It is also a good idea to notify your academic adviser about your plans, so that they can support you in your studies and throughout your registration process. It is important to ensure that you receive course credit at the appropriate level for your studies, and keeping your adviser informed about your degree progress will make your graduation process smoother. 

Below, we have copied the enrollment instructions from Northwestern's Language Resource Center:

"Important information when choosing this option to study a world language:

• Completing language courses through CourseShare will not automatically fulfill the Weinberg Language Proficiency Requirement. In order to fulfill the requirement, students need to achieve proficiency in the language they studied through CourseShare and validate proficiency. Please see Proficiency in a Language Not Taught at Northwestern webpage for more information about the validation process.
• Many host institutions participating in CourseShare are on a semester system. Northwestern students might need to start taking a course earlier and/or end later than Northwestern’s quarter timeline.
• The received grade for a course taken in the Spring semester will be recorded in both Winter and Spring Quarters of Northwestern and you will earn 2 units of credits.
• Enrolment is dependent on availability of the requested course in a given term.
• If you are an undergraduate student, please discuss your plan to take a language course through CourseShare with your College or Home School Adviser. You will need their acknowledgement in order to submit this form."

Please know that, while Northwestern may not be able to identify a language speaker to evaluate your proficiency in an Indigenous language, CNAIR is committed to helping you find a speaker who can serve as a tester for your proficiency. In this way, CNAIR can support your ability to study an Indigenous language to fulfill Northwestern's language requirement. 

Once you have identified a course at another BTAA university, you will fill out this course request form - https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/4bd84669297244ac97741bbd0b4d45a9

Graduate 

The BTAA offers a unique opportunity for graduate students, which your home department might require you to apply to first before you can access CourseShare options directly. The Traveling Scholar Program enables "​​doctoral students to spend up to a full academic year pursuing specialized courses of study, researching unique library collections, and working in advanced laboratories and facilities… with no change in registration procedures from their home university or additional tuition." In addition to the 14 BTAA universities, the University of Chicago also participates in the Traveling Scholar Program (TSP). This program is only available for up to one full year (2 semesters or 3 academic quarters), so if you participate in the TSP for a year's worth of courses, you can continue enrolling in eligible courses directly through CourseShare after your TSP year ends. While the TSP was originally established to enable graduate students to relocate temporarily for in-person courses at another university, many language courses are offered remotely through their home institutions, so the TSP is compatible with these. 

Once you have identified courses at one of the eligible universities, follow the application instructions for the TSP here: https://btaa.org/resources-for/students/traveling-scholar-program/app-info  

Be sure that you apply to the TSP at least 6 weeks before the beginning of the term when your desired class begins.   

As a graduate student, you are also eligible to enroll directly in CourseShare classes. To request a class through CourseShare as a graduate student, you will fill out this course request form - https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/4bd84669297244ac97741bbd0b4d45a9

For questions about registration as a graduate student, you can contact Kristine Emrich, Assistant Director of Graduate Students Services - kristine.emrich@northwestern.edu 

It is likely that you will have to continue advocating for yourself to enroll in additional language courses after your first quarter or semester. For that purpose, you are welcome to use the sample course request email template below, to communicate about your desired courses with the registrar, your academic adviser, or other administrative staff who reply to your course request form. 

Sample Enrollment Request Email

Once you have completed your first language course at another university, you will hopefully seek to enroll in a second, third, or fourth subsequent course. This email template is meant to help you convey all of the necessary information to your academic adviser and the registrar in order to continue enrolling in language courses. Especially when a language course is taught by the same professor as one you have already taken, it is often possible to skip the course request form and directly enroll in additional courses by emailing your adviser and the staff member who manages enrollment. For undergraduates, you can email languageresourcecenter@northwestern.edu, while graduate workers can email Kristine Emrich (kristine.emrich@northwestern.edu) and Associate Registrar Maria Di Benedetto (m-dibenedetto@northwestern.edu). 

Dear ___, 

I hope you are doing well! I'm writing to give you the information for the classes I plan to take at UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE in their FALL/SPRING semester, corresponding with Northwestern's [Fall/Winter/Spring/Summer] quarters. 

I need to enroll in DEPT + COURSE NUMBER + NAME (class ##### section #### with PROFESSOR).

My UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE student ID number is #####, my UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE netid is ABC###, and my UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE email is XXXXX.

Would you please register me for these courses, and for the corresponding place-holder courses at NU?

Thank you!

BTAA Courses