Language study is an essential part of doctoral education, and demonstrated language competency is a part of doctoral degree requirements. For most scholars this language use involves reading texts and scholarship in that language and writing about it, activities that often involve electronic resources. Dictionaries (particularly multi-language translating dictionaries) are often best used and most available in electronic form. It is reasonable to expect that language exams, too, make use of such dictionaries and be composed with a keyboard rather than with pen and bluebook.

Yet access to translation software and translated texts may also be part of a broad digital environment, so for the security of an examination, some sort of blocking software is necessary. The University of Pennsylvania found Emerald to be a package that allowed exam takers to use specific resources—online dictionaries—while restricting access to other sites, hence allowing language exams to proceed with the use of computers and electronic dictionaries.

Yet Penn is choosing not to continue to use Emerald. This decision not only throws language exams back to bluebooks and pens; more importantly, it disadvantages those doctoral students whose best dictionaries are available only in electronic form.

We request that Penn return access to electronic dictionaries for its doctoral students who must demonstrate competency with a language exam. We request either that Emerald be returned to use, or that a comparably effective product be made available.