The University of Kansas has announced that it will begin offering classes in the Somali language. There are more than 5,000 Somali immigrants in the Kansas City metropolitan area and there is a significant Somali population in southwestern Kansas.
An elementary class in Somalia will be offered at the Summer African Language Institute. The Kansas African Studies Center and the department of African and African American studies at the University of Kansas will be offering more advanced classes in Somali language during the fall and spring semester of the 2014-15 academic year.