It was SO STUPID. Even very, very few of the lit majors had any real reason for being fluent in another language,* and the choice of what language to use almost always had absolutely no connection to their other work. French and German were the two default (anything else had to be approved, but I never heard of someone being turned down when suggesting Spanish or Latin).

The whole thing is basically a vestige of a time when a great deal of scholarship was happening in those languages, and reliance on translation was dicier. When a small group of students (self included) challenge the relevance and necessity, we got a whole lot of, "But learning a foreign language is such a good thing," which, yes, true, but that doesn't mean it belong as a requirement to obtaining a Ph.D in English. I mean, it's valuable to know how to change a tire, but we don't have a timed tire-change requirement for Physics Ph.D. We could never get a straight answer to, "How does this relate to my degree, especially to the point where it can derail said degree with one two-hour test?" that didn't come down to, "It's what we've always done."