ADFL Bulletin ◆ Vol. 44, No. 2, 2018 69 © 2018 Per Urlaub CrossRef DOI 10.1632/adf.44.2.69 Introduction DURING his 2015 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama outlined a policy proposal that aimed at increasing college afordability. Named aptly America’s College Promise, the White House’s initiative suggested a legal framework at the federal level that would allow two years of free tuition for all undergraduates en- rolled as full-time students at community colleges. In his speech, Obama compared his initiative with the establishment of free secondary education in the beginning of the twentieth century and the GI Bill after the Second World War, two reforms that, according to Obama, “trained the best workforce in the world” (4). Envision- ing a future where “2 years of college becomes as free and universal in America as high school is today,” the White House’s objective was to stimulate the economy by maximizing the number of young Americans that pursue postsecondary studies, ap- pealing especially to those from economically disadvantaged families (4). Although Obama’s American College Promise program never received bipartisan sup- port in the United States Congress and has become obsolete after the presidential election in November 2016, his proposal is symptomatic of a general trend in American higher education policy that prioritizes the funding for community college education with the stated goal of growing enrollment, boosting vocational training, and optimizing the community colleges as efective gateways to four-year undergraduate degree programs. For example, legislation that awards full tuition waivers for all full-time community col- lege students already exists at the state and district levels in the form of the Tennessee Promise and Chicago Star Scholarship programs (Fain). Moreover, both Donald Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address and Joe Kennedy’s Democratic response demonstrated the sustaining appeal of community colleges on both sides of the aisle in Washington. As a result of this trend, foreign language departments at universities are likely to see growing numbers of undergraduate students with transfer credit from com- munity colleges. Tis essay focuses on the critical transition between community colleges and universities and explores the challenges and opportunities for foreign language departments at public universities that arise when there are a substantial number of undergraduate students with community college experience. Community College Education in the United States Community colleges emerged as so-called junior colleges about one hundred years ago as a result of educational innovation and reforms during the Progressive Era Per Urlaub is associate college professor at Mid- dlebury College and the associate dean for curric- ulum at the Middlebury Language Schools. From Community College to University: Transfer Students and Transfer Credit as Opportunities for Foreign Language Departments at Research Universities Per Urlaub