The governor's budget cuts to education for the next academic year are affecting every one of us, and Chancellor Birgeneau's recent mass e-mail to students has only confirmed our worst fear: tuition will be raised again next year. But if we are going to pay more money to go to school, we should be able to enroll in the classes that we want, right? Wrong.

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC) is facing a disproportionately high cut of 28 percent to its instructional budget next year, and this will impact more than 50 percent of Chinese, Japanese and Korean language classes. Because EALC is losing 13 lecturers and 70 classes, no students outside of the College of Letters & Science, including those from the Haas School of Business (as well as students from all the other colleges), will be allowed to enroll in Chinese, Japanese or Korean language classes next year. As a Business Administration major who plans to go into international business someday-but then again, with the world economy merging into one, what business major isn't going into international business someday?-I find this very disturbing.

China, as we know, is rapidly on its way to becoming the biggest economic power in the world. This means all of us someday will probably have interactions with the Chinese business sector, not to mention China's cultural, social and political sectors. Of course, it would be to our great advantage if we knew Chinese and could actually communicate effectively with our Chinese partners. But if we Business Administration majors are not even allowed to learn Chinese, we will be deprived of a vital career-building skill.

I have been to many career fairs where potential employers have zoomed in on the "Language Skills: Chinese, Japanese" line on my resume and then promptly decided that they should get to know me better. Understanding Chinese is a skill that will only become more valuable in the next few decades, both when we first venture out into the job market and when we reach the peak of our careers. Therefore, despite your 4.0 GPA, your summer internship with Goldman Sachs or even the fact that you graduated from the Haas School of Business-which is, after all, one of the best undergraduate business programs in the country-you might find yourself passed over in favor of someone with a much less stellar background who happened to have taken Chinese language classes in college. Yes, the simple fact that you do not know Chinese may someday disqualify you from the brightest career opportunities.

Haas students and students from colleges outside of Letters & Science should be especially outraged. Those who have implemented these inequitable budget cuts are in effect irresponsibly putting our future success in the global economy at stake, and we have too much to lose. We cannot let ourselves be cut off from EALC language classes. We must fight back.

Lastly and most importantly, we-as students of business, law, journalism, engineering, chemistry, education, architecture and more-must go directly to the administrators of our respective schools. We must pressure them to negotiate with the College of Letters & Science so we can take Chinese, Japanese and Korean language classes in the future. For those of us from Haas and other colleges, access to East Asian languages is a matter of vital self-interest. Let us make our voices heard!