Although Tagalog is the fourth most-spoken language in the United States, it is not one of over 25 languages offered at Brown.
Through a petition launched in early February, the Filipino Alliance has advocated for the addition of a formal language program for Tagalog — one of the primary languages spoken in the Philippines.
The petition, which currently has over 800 signatories — 200 of whom are willing to provide testimony in favor of the program — is a renewed attempt at a similar 2022 petition that saw limited engagement. The alliance relaunched the petition after gaining a significant number of signatures at the Ivy League Filipino Conference in November.
The alliance was co-founded in 1988 by Myra Liwanag ’91, who later worked as director of regional and multicultural programs at the University from 2008-2019. Liwanag said that when she was a student, there were less than ten Filipino students in her freshman class.
“What we’re doing now is the culmination of decades of advocacy,” said Anna Zulueta ’25.5, the co-president of the Filipino Alliance. The alliance, alongside the Southeast Asian Studies Initiative, played a role in launching HIST 1962G: “Southeast Asian Food History,” which will be offered in fall 2025. Now the alliance has its sights set on founding a Tagalog language program.
In the past, students have encountered challenges designing Group Independent Study Projects to engage with Tagalog and Filipino culture and history, Liwanag said. When she was a student, Liwanag found it difficult to find a Tagalog professor to lead the project.
Instead, students were forced to shift their focus to a topic that was more “in reach,” Liwanag explained, adding that she and her peers pivoted toward creating a history class on the relationship between the United States and the Philippines, which was a former U.S. colony.
But, “temporary solutions like GISPs have really run out,” said Alexa Theodoropoulos ’27, the vice president of the Filipino Alliance.
A student cannot repeat GISPs on the same or similar subjects for credit. This catalyzed the start of petition work after the College Curriculum Council denied a second Filipino language GISP intended for the fall 2024 semester, according to Jelynn Tatad ’24 GS, the former co-president of the Filipino Alliance.
Tagalog is “a unifying language even among our very, very diverse Filipino culture,” Liwanag said.
Other universities have recently added Tagalog to their course catalog. Harvard began offering Tagalog in the 2023-24 academic year. Yale will offer Tagalog language programs for the first time this fall, after months of student advocacy.
For Theodoropoulos, these changes demonstrate how “elite American institutions are honoring (Filipino) culture after so many years of a lack of representation.”
Polish and Vietnamese were some of the latest languages added to the over 25 taught at Brown. But Vietnamese is currently housed under the East Asian Studies Department as there is no department focused on Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asian Studies Initiative is currently advocating for the development of academic study in the Southeast Asia region.
If the Tagalog program is added, it will fall under the umbrella of the Center for Language Studies, which did not respond to a request for comment.
“The new Tagalog program would be impactful to demonstrate that Brown is committed to serving the Filipino community at Brown and is broadly committed to providing academic offerings for Southeast Asian student populations,” said Niyanta Nepal ’25, the president of the Undergraduate Council of Students.
The UCS board members voted unanimously in favor of the petition.
“In some ways, it feels like now is the time,” Liwanag said.
