Home to the University of Maryland considers making English official language

Jack Perry, a 25-year veteran of the council, has crafted a proposal for the city to study other towns that have made English their official language to see whether the move has hurt their economy or social fabric.

Perry, whose proposal will come before the City Council on Sept. 16, was particularly bothered that the College Park Web site offers translations into four other languages: Spanish, French, Italian and German.

“English is the language of commerce in the U.S., and the city taxpayers are currently funding the translating of our language into who knows what language on our city Web site,” Perry said.

“I don’t care what people say. Every legal document is in English; all the laws are passed in English.”

The city Web site has included a translation feature for three years, at a cost of $810 each year, said Stephen Groh, the city’s finance director. More than $3,000 is also set aside in the budget each year to translate paperwork, but all might not get spent; last year, only $100 was used to update and reprint the materials, Groh said.

In Maryland, Taneytown and Walkersville have in the past two years made English their official language.

 Taneytown City Councilman Paul Chamberlain Jr. introduced legislation in fall 2006 that made it the first in the state to adopt English as its official language. With hundreds of languages in the world, it is logical to establish English as the primary one in America, Chamberlain

said.

“I don’t think there have been any bad things, absolutely not,” Chamberlain said of the law’s effects. “If we, as elected officials, start doing our job as we are elected to, and start upholding the Constitution, I believe that we as America will become stronger.”

About 95 percent of Taneytown’s 5,100 residents are white, while about 75 percent of College Park’s nearly 25,000 residents are white; nearly 13 percent are Hispanic and 12 percent are black.

College Park also is home to a nearly 40,000-student university that prides itself on diversity and multiculturalism, where one-third of students are minorities.

Jonathan Sachs, Student Government Association president at the University of Maryland, College Park, said he doesn’t support the legislation.

“I pride myself, and my SGA administration and the university does, on multiculturalism and diversity,” Sachs said. “I think this is kind of a step in the opposite direction.”

Kimberley Propeack, an advocate for Casa de Maryland, said in an e-mail that the bill “serves as a declaration of culture — about who is wanted and who is not wanted within a city’s borders.”

“The fact that such a measure would be considered in the home of the University of Maryland, home of thousands of foreign students and a place where people can learn more than 20 foreign languages is particularly ironic. And more than a little embarrassing.”

Perry rejected that notion.

“It would make the city very forward in that this is a place where English-speaking people can advance, just like any other place,” he said.

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com