diff --git a/tracks/app/controllers/application.rb b/tracks/app/controllers/application.rb
index 79fdb4a5..439bea7c 100644
--- a/tracks/app/controllers/application.rb
+++ b/tracks/app/controllers/application.rb
@@ -14,6 +14,13 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
 
   before_filter :set_session_expiration
   before_filter :get_current_user
+  
+  after_filter :set_charset
+
+  # By default, sets the charset to UTF-8 if it isn't already set
+  def set_charset
+    @headers["Content-Type"] ||= "text/html; charset=UTF-8" 
+  end
 
   # Count the number of uncompleted actions, excluding those 
   # in hidden contexts