According to UM spokesperson Dave Kuntz, the Defense Critical Language & Culture Program is a “pretty unique” program that educates U.S. Armed Forces on the language and culture of the countries they will likely deploy to. The director of the department, Liz Barrs, was notified of this cut on April 11 from an “official within the Defense Department,” according to Kuntz.

This program offers classes that provide military members education that “fortifies them with a deep cultural understanding of their target languages’ region and its people, as well as language fluency consistent with their needs,” according to the program’s Mansfield Center website.