The Consortium for Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs) is an initiative among University of Virginia (UVA), Duke University, and Vanderbilt University. It was initially launched by joint effort between UVA and Duke in fall 2013 and expanded to a three-institutional partnership in fall 2015 when Vanderbilt officially joined it. Instructors used immersive real-time and high-definition TelePresence system (CISCO) to allow course exchange across the three campuses. The Consortium started with three less commonly taught languages: Elementary Tibetan taught by DEALLC instructor Tsetan Nepali (UVA), Elementary Creole taught by Jacques Pierre (Duke), and Elementary K'iche' taught by Mareike Sattler (Vanderbilt). Each language was taught at their host institution and made available to students at the other participating universities. Since 2019, Swahili has replaced Tibetan, taught by Leonora Anyango (elementary) and Anne Rotich (intermediate) at UVA. In 2021, Turkish was added as the fourth language, taught by Didem Havlioglu (Duke). As the consortium evolves, four less commonly taught languages are taught purely online or hybrid through Zoom. At UVA, three faculty members serve as faculty coordinators: Allison Bigelow (K’iche’), Karen James (Haitian Creole), and Daniel Lefkowitz (Turkish).  

On March 2, 2023, Duke and Vanderbilt faculty and administrators visited UVA to celebrate, reconnect, and reflect on ten years of collaboration and generate visionary future plans. Different parties met with the Associate Dean for the Humanities and Arts, department chairs and faculty, administrators at the registrar office, and A&S Learning Design and Technology to discuss seamless coordination for academic and administrative matters in the future.

A series of language-specific activities and events took place within four departments on grounds: Carter Woodson Institute (Swahili), French (Haitian Creole), Middle Eastern Languages and South Asian Languages and Cultures (Turkish), and Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese (K’iche’). An information session on Shared Consortium for Less Commonly Taught languages was held at 3:30-4:30PM at Language Commons. Five faculty gave presentations to promote Haitian Creole, K’iche’, Swahili, Turkish, and Malagasy (added in fall 2024). The presenters were Jacques Pierre (Duke), Mareike Sattler (Vanderbilt), Leonora Anyango (UVA), Didem Havlioglu (Duke), and Tendry Randriamanana (Vanderbilt) in order. After the presentations, faculty and students interacted and connected at different stations to explore the uniqueness of each less commonly taught language.