In times of chilly relations between the United States and France, with fresh memories of campaigns to boycott French products and use a patriotic new name for French fries, you might assume the number of college French majors would be dropping.

You would be wrong -- at least when it comes to the University of Rhode Island.

In the last six years, the number of URI French majors has nearly quadrupled, going from 30 students to 115.

Granted, 95 percent of those students combine French with another discipline in a double major. But, says URI French program director Alain-Philippe Durand, that very fact highlights the language's practicality. "There is increasing demand in all fields for people who are aware of a foreign culture and have a global understanding of things," said Durand, who's originally from Marseille and was hired at URI in 1999.

Durand says it's hard to tell how URI's program compares with others in terms of size, because many schools don't publicize the number of students in each major. (He notes that Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University do make those figures public, and have 19 and 90 French majors, respectively.) But, he says, "if we are not the largest in the U.S., we are in the top three."

In addition to regular undergraduate double majors, URI offers two special programs in French. The international engineering program, which includes a six-month paid internship in France or Quebec, leads to a bachelor of science in engineering and a bachelor of arts in French, and a six-year program in French and pharmacy includes three internships.

HOW HAS URI'S program grown so quickly?

One flier for the program advertises: "To become a French major, no paperwork, no office visits, no hassle. Just write to adurand [at] uri.edu and that's it!" But that may be an understatement.

Durand recruits talented students from local high schools, through their French teachers. And in URI's introductory-level French classes, he asks instructors about their best students and sends each a written invitation to meet with him to hear about the French program.

That's when the hard-sell begins.

"I went into the meeting with the intention of establishing a minor and leaving in 10 minutes with a French major," Nicole Verrier, a URI senior from Cumberland majoring in French and biological sciences, said.

"I came into his office one day to ask him about an exchange program in France, and half an hour later I had signed up for the major," recalls Ruth Gisselle Crisostomo, a 2004 graduate of the French program who is now pursuing a master's degree in French and journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Crisostomo is completing an internship at a local newspaper in Niort, France, and will soon start a second internship at France Bleu, a regional radio station.

But the program doesn't owe its growth solely to persuasion. Even after students sign up, they say, professors go out of their way to offer support and guidance.

"At a large university, it's important to feel part of something and this department does that," says Colleen Stadelman, a 2002 graduate in French and economics who now works for General Electric in London, traveling internationally to perform internal audits. "Everyone feels welcome and valued -- and remembered."

URI'S PROGRAM takes an interdisciplinary approach. It "presents a multifaceted France," says Sarah Gabryluk, a fourth-year student in the international engineering program. "We learn beyond 'the land of wine and cheese' and develop an appreciation for other cultural aspects, such as Francophone hip-hop, the history of Paris, and movies depicting different time periods."

That's right, hip-hop.

Durand, who also teaches courses in film and comparative literature, created a course on hip-hop culture to reflect the fact that France is the world's second largest consumer of rap music. (The background music on the program's promotional DVD is French rap.)

At URI, "I was exposed to the best critical, literary and philosophical works written in the French language, thanks to a devoted team of professors and instructors," says Logan Connors, a 2004 who's now a second-year Ph.D. student in French studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "Each and every seminar was difficult but enlightening, and I am succeeding in graduate school because of the academic rigor found at the URI French department."

Connors notes that after Hurricane Katrina, two professors from the French program were among the first people to contact him and inquire about his safety.

Sarah Feeley, a 2002 graduate with a bachelor of arts in French and a bachelor of fine arts in acting, lives in Paris and works as the housing and student affairs coordinator for New York University's program in France. She also teaches and performs for an English-language theater company.

"This decision to combine degrees required me to take very full course loads each semester," Feeley said. "My French courses were interesting enough, however, that this rarely seemed problematic for me, even when it meant having to read hundreds of pages of French literature while waiting in the wings during rehearsals in the theater department."

Durand says the "French-bashing" in which some Americans participated after the Iraq war began doesn't bother him. He points out that Russia and Germany also opposed the U.S. military campaign; he sees the level of hostility directed at France as evidence of how important France still is to the United States.

The tense relations clearly didn't hurt French enrollment at URI. "The word is starting to spread," Durand says. "It's not quite to the point where someone would say -- 'Your daughter takes French? Have you heard of Rhode Island?' But that's where we want to go, and we're on our way."